Hope for easing psychological trauma's effect on the mind

Memory Reconsolidation and What Albert Ellis Knew All Along

Like me, John Medina grew up as an Air Force brat in the Cold War. We're also both interested in psychology, mental health, and social sciences (although I took the sociology route in school). Unlike me, he is a 'developmental molecular biologist with special research interests in the isolation and characterisation of genes involved in human brain development and the genetics of psychiatric disorders' (that's quoted from Wikipedia). He is also the author of several books, including Brain Rules, and writes a blog in which the following post caught my attention, as it deals with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and memory. It was shared by Buffy in my news reader:

The wars currently being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan represent one reason to study PTSD, and in doing so, it could lead to new discoveries which could help both the military and civilian communities.

Many things concern me about our military operations in those theaters, but one of them touches on a professional interest—the growing incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There are 3 reasons that prick up my research instincts, all springing from this asymmetric warfare.

• First, there are no real “fronts” to many of these operations. As a result, soldiers who used to be able to sit comfortably in the rear (often called the “tail”) are now as exposed to the hazards of combat as those charged with fighting (often called the “tooth”). Consequently, the pool of soldiers who are potential candidates for PTSD has increased. This means the research cohort is getting larger and increasingly better defined.

• Second, soldiers are returning into these asymmetric environments multiple times for very long periods. This provides an opportunity to study the mental health effects of combat over a sustained period of years—valuable for countries such as Somalia and parts of Uganda, which have been in a continuous state of war for decades.

• Third, the number of women exposed to combat is increasing. Since there is growing evidence that men and women process stress very differently, these populations represent valuable research opportunities to ask and answer sex-based questions regarding the effects of combat on behavioral outcomes.

But scientists have found a way to re-set the fear response by using comfort during a window of memory reconsolidation. This discovery could lead to new ways of counseling those exposed to war, rape, and other experiences that lead to PTSD. Read the column to see how the research worked, and what their findings were. It really is fascinating that we could have a 'rewind' button of sorts in dealing with traumatic memories.