One of the core symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) is intrusive memory: disturbing, unwanted memories of the traumatic event keep coming back, either in waking life or in dreams. recently, it has been suggested that this enhancement of memory is due to stress hormones, and that administering certain drugs shortly after a traumatic event could prevent traumatic memories from being consolidated, leaving the victim essentially amnesic for the trauma itself – and therefore, presumably, reducing the likelihood of ptsd. assuming that this were possible, is it a good idea? discuss the pros and cons.

The onset, and treatment of PTSD is no easy matter. In order for such a disorder to appear, which is later expressed with tremendous peaks of stress, crisis, behavioral problems, panic disorders, anxiety disorders, and many more debilitating conditions, a person must have experienced an event, or circumstance, that traumatically negatively impacted the correct psychological and emotional processes of the mind. In these patients, one the most common situations is that panic attacks and anxiety peaks happen particularly when the traumatic event, moment, or circumstance is remembered, and they are very good at remembering not just the moment itself, but all elements that surrounded that trauma. Also, they are able to make really clear connections and associations between those events and normal events in life that, when they appear, trigger the defensive responses of the mind.

The idea of administering a patient with PTSD with medication that would stop memory formation shortly after a traumatic event would not be a good idea simply because while the drugs focus on the chemical processes involved in memory formation, this procedure ignores that memory is much more than just chemicals in the brain. This has been show time and time again in research. Even with strong medication that basically generates amnesia, or trauma to the brain that may cause amnesia, it has been seen, and science cannot yet fully explain how, these patients may have partial, or total recovery of memories. And because the process of memory formation is still so misunderstood, and not all the factors involved are completely known, simply administering a drug that would stop the hormones that are believed to play a role in memory formation could become more of a problem for the patient. Also it is not being considered that amnesia causes even more stress in patients, as somehow the brain still recognizes that there is information present, but cannot simply bring it to concious awareness.

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