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LoginBy John Bingham
Published: 7:35AM BST 04 Jun 2010
In laboratory tests, scientists harnessed the effects of a natural chemical which works on the brain to reduce fear and anxiety.
They gave lab rats a protein known as called Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), to help them “relearn” painful association from stressful situations.
It is hoped that the discovery will lead to new treatments to help people with phobias as well as soldiers left with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), known as combat stress.
In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a couple played by Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey undergo a procedure known as a targeted memory erasure to wipe out recollections of each other after their relationship.
The study, published in the journal Science, shows how BDNF can work in a similar way to a psychological technique called extinction training in which phobia sufferers are repeatedly exposed to the source of their fears to help them overcome them.
Eventually the brain is “rewired” to overwrite painful associations from stressful situations in the past, although it does not extinguish them altogether.
Researchers at the University of Puerto Rico’s School of Medicine created stress “triggers” in rats by giving them small electric shocks which loud music was played.
They came to associate the music with the pain and froze when they heard it.
But the effect was reversed when they were given doses of BDNF.
“The surprising finding here is that the drug substituted for extinction training,”said Dr Gregory Quirk who led the investigation.
Dr Thomas Insel, director of the US National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the study, said: “This work supports the idea that medications could be developed to augment the effects of BDNF, providing opportunities for pharmaceutical treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders.”
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