Posted by linkadge on November 15, 2007, at 23:35:11
In reply to Amnestics and panic, posted by Astounder on November 15, 2007, at 17:56:59
I think there are supposedly some natural chemicals released during extreme stress that produce dissociative effects.
I remember reading about some chemical that is released during stress shares similar bindings sites to PCP.
There is the issue that you could prevent the formation of a memory which might help in the extinction process to reduce future panic reactions. I think some research showed that giving mice a beta blocker after a forced swim test prevented post stress induced behavioral consequences, but they also failed to learn the location of the secret platform as well as mice who didn't get the beta blocker post stress.
Somtimes the post stress hypercholinergic function is adaptive. In some situations, introducing a drug during this process might hamper a complete recovery.
For instance, if you took scopolamine after just witnessing a car accident, you'd likely still remember the car accident, but not remember consequent associated events which might ultimately help to bring resolution to the situation. So your brain might just get stuck at the car accident and not be able to move through the event for loss of memory.
(Eh, now I'm just blithering)
Its hard to know in which situations a drug intervtenton might be benificial.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:795313
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071115/msgs/795397.html