A DRUG commonly used to treat high blood pressure could help victims of post-traumatic stress disorder to block out terrible memories.

Research in America suggests that a beta-blocker drug called propranolol can interfere with the way the brain stores memories and has the potential to shut down some of them.

It is already known that when rats, which have learnt to fear a tone because it is followed by an electric shock, are given propranolol, they lose this learnt response. A team based at Cornell University, New York, has now achieved similar results in human beings and is recruiting patients for a trial, the journal Nature reports.

Margaret Altemus, who is leading the research, told Nature that many sufferers are unwilling to try the treatment preferring more established options such as exposure therapy, in which they are encouraged to think about their traumatic experiences, then calm themselves by recalling happy events.

In the trial Dr Altemus will ask volunteers to take the drug whenever they feel the onset of symptoms, such as rapid heart rate, or find themselves recalling the experience. Preliminary research suggests that the drug might break the link between particular memories and panic, preventing the traumatic flashbacks in some patients. Some psychiatrists are sceptical about the therapy, as PTSD is not always triggered by conscious memories. Others think that using drugs that interfere with memory could be unethical. Paul McHugh, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, said: “Psychiatrists are once again marching in where angels fear to tread.”

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