Prof Merel Kindt has been researching the potential of pharmaceuticals used in conjunction with exposure therapy to undo emotional learning and fear memory.

Kindt’s work explores using propranolol for people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when recalling memories, even many years after a traumatic event has occurred. Her work has demonstrated that administering propranolol can bring about a reduction of fear associated with trauma leading to a reduction in avoidant behaviour, intrusive memories and other symptoms relating to PTSD. 

Propranolol, known as ‘beta blockers’, is commonly used to treat a number of health conditions – high blood pressure, irregular heart rate, performance anxiety, thyroid problems, tremors, migraines, to prevent further heart problems in those with angina or previous heart attacks – to name a few. In addition to these, used in the appropriate way, propranolol could be a breakthrough treatment for symptoms of PTSD. Propranolol blocks the effects of norepinephrine – a hormone similar to adrenaline involved in the fight or flight response – in the brain. Used in conjunction with recalling traumatic events it has the potential to neutralise fear associated with the traumatic memory by disrupting the way a memory is put back into storage after being retrieved in process called ‘reconsolidation’.