• April 26, 2024

Everyone, absolutely everyone, we keep memories that we would prefer to erase from our memory. Bad experiences, deaths of loved ones, failures , heartbreak ... if only we could make them disappear!

And yet, what seemed like a utopia can now become reality thanks to the research of a group of Dutch scientists. The name of the experiment is strong and even shocking: electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), but it promises to erase specific memories.

Clear memories by shock of electro shock

According to scientists Rijnstate hospital, in Holland, Despite the fact that ECT has been used for more than 75 years and has a bad press because it is considered inhuman, there are doctors who believe that this therapy It is useful and even advisable for certain serious cases, such as depression extreme The TEC, explain the experts, is to pass electric current through the brain to trigger temporary seizures.

Of course, muscle relaxers and anesthesia are used to make this experience as comfortable as possible.

What is the therapy

The research participants were shown two sets of photos, each with a story. Just before the TEC session, they were shown one of the stories again, in order to reactivate that memory in particular.

After the treatment, the patients forgot the story they had just watched, while the memory of the other he had remained. A participant in the study, Jannetje Brussaard-Nieuwenhuizen, who receives TEC since 1969, said: "I only remember that they had shown me something, but nothing more".

It's just a test

Experts clarify that this study is only a proof of a concept that is still far from being applied as therapy . However, for Brussaard-Nieuwenhuizen herself, electroconvulsive therapy is the only thing that has helped her in her extreme depression.

The researchers hope that one day ECT will be used to treat disorders such as post-traumatic stress. According to him Dr. Jeroen Van Waarde, psychiatrist at the Rijnstate hospital , "it's potentially very exciting, because if we can reactivate thoughts or memories , then we have goals for treatments dedicated to this kind of problems ".

However, he cautions, this study is still far from being applied in patients. Even if it is proved that it is scientifically possible to erase certain memories There are still ethical questions to answer, such as the implications of destroying them.

Video Medicine: Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT): Treating Severe Depression (April 2024).