MIT finds cure for fear

MIT biochemists have identified a molecular mechanism behind fear, and successfully cured it in mice, according to an article in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Researchers from MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory hope that their work could lead to the first drug to treat the millions of adults who suffer each year from persistent, debilitating fears - including hundreds of soldiers returning from conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Inhibiting a kinase, an enzyme that change proteins, called Cdk5 facilitates the extinction of fear learned in a particular context, Li-Huei Tsai, Picower Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and colleagues showed.

Conversely, the learned fear persisted when the kinase's activity was increased in the hippocampus, the brain's center for storing memories, the scientists found.

Cdk5, paired with the protein p35, helps new brain cells, or neurons, form and migrate to their correct positions during early brain development, and the MIT researchers looked at how Cdk5 affects the ability to form and eliminate fear-related memories.

"Remarkably, inhibiting Cdk5 facilitated extinction of learned fear in mice," Tsai said. "This data points to a promising therapeutic avenue to treat emotional disorders and raises hope for patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or phobia."

Emotional disorders such as post-traumatic stress and panic attacks stem from the inability of the brain to stop experiencing the fear associated with a specific incident or series of incidents.

For some people, upsetting memories of traumatic events do not go away on their own, or may even get worse over time, severely affecting their lives.

A study conducted by the Army in 2004 found that one in eight soldiers returning from Iraq reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

According to the National Center for PTSD in the United States, around eight percent of the population will have PTSD symptoms at some point in their lives. Some 5.2 million adults have PTSD during a given year, the center reports.

In the current research, genetically engineered mice received mild foot shocks in a certain environment and were re-exposed to the same environment without the foot shock.

The team found that mice with increased levels of Cdk5 activity had more trouble letting go of the memory of the foot shock and continued to freeze in fear.

The reverse was also true: in mice whose Cdk5 activity was inhibited, the bad memory of the shocks disappeared when the mice learned that they no longer needed to fear the environment where the foot shocks had once occurred.

"In our study, we employ mice to show that extinction of learned fear depends on counteracting components of a molecular pathway involving the protein kinase Cdk5," Tsai concluded. "We found that Cdk5 activity prevents extinction, at least in part by negatively affecting the activity of another key kinase."

Thank you for the link, looks interesting, bookmarked, and I WILL see what it is about. Heh. I still have a sense of humor sometimes. I think. Curiously, I was just ready to shut down and clean up for my monthly appointment with my therapist who happens to be a psych nurse (and a Dem) but nice, my age, and I like her if we don't talk politics. So I very, very carefully jotted down the URL, tested it, and took it with me. Thought about asking for a Republican therapist, but I think in that profession they are mostly Dem (grants and govt money), and I could get somebody that would end up worse for me. This is the second time I've shown her an article citing a credible professional journal linked from this site that I knew she probably hadn't heard about yet. Where did I find that? A hate site (tongue-in-cheek, because that's what Dems say, didn't tell her about DU) where they post news articles from all over the world, and I've met some nice people there, didn't mention a few I didn't hit it off with, trying to stay positive.

Then she wanted to up my depresson med, and I said no, I will get busy instead. At some point I might, but there is one side effect with that for me (constipation, says in the literature, too), no big deal but a nuisance. Then there was a med on my record, can't remember what the name of it was, never heard of it, wish I'd jotted that down, she wanted to know why that was on "there". I didn't know. It is a mistake. I have never been on that med. If you prescribed it for me and called it in, then there is a prescription over at the drug store I didn't know about. I wouldn't take it anyway if I didn't remember talking about a change. What is it for? Anxiety. Oh, well my anxiety med is holding, klonopin (holds longer than xanax which doesn't last long, some don't need it to last long), I don't take the full dose prescribed unless I really need it and am honest about it. I found that one by researching on the web and reading a couple personal cases, mentioned it to them, then they finally prescribe it like they thought of it themselves. Maybe they did. So you have to keep one step ahead of that stuff. It WAS a mistake, have no clue who put it on there. I was having 6 anxiety or panic attacks (I'm still not sure what the difference is, a matter of degree, I guess) a day where my heart started racing so fast for NO reason, and it went on for about a half hour that way. It is very scary, especially now that I am older.

At my age is is harder to feel confident that anything will work, but I will definitely look into the link because I have insurance, may not be necessary, don't abuse it, and have little to lose at this point and everything to gain. That one schizophrenic did reprogram his brain circuitry over time, if he can do it and there is a way to do it, I ought to be open to that if it's along those lines.

Dianna, thank you for your kind words. People don't understand if they, a close friend/associate, family member haven't suffered from it. You and some do. If they don't understand, it is a source of shame, so I avoid people who are unkind about it. And no two cases are exactly alike. Of all people, I am just as alarmed about pushing drugs and pills on people because of negative consequences we read about and have seen like when my daughter took her son off ridlin, moved to a different school district and doctor, smart move in that case, they had him completely zombied out, he outgrew it but may be beset with something because some of it runs in the family and is genetic. Now they have my younger grandson on something for hyperactivity, I don't like it, but have no say (and would be careful about that anyway) because his mother is divorced from my son. I was hyperactive as a kid, too, and thank God I was spared that because I outgrew the hyperactive part by late teens and wasn't that bad anyway, people just don't want to deal with a child with more energy than others. My daughter and son were hyperactive, too, but they didn't have ridlin then, thank God. But there is definitely a flip side. By the time this new whatever it is is tested, it may not pan out into anything that will be safe or work for humans, etc., but they may peddle it anyway. I'm used to people writing the things they sometimes do. Some people through willpower and facing their fears, can overcome. Some people spontaneously get better. We have never gotten to the bottom of what triggered mine in childhood, much adult trauma but nobody shooting at me every day but more prolonged) and a waste of time for me to go there.

JmyBryan, thank you for the hopeful words. Clam Digger, I used to love fried clams, can't get them any more at Long John Silver's around here, same with breaded oysters, went digging for them once on Cape Cod, didn't have a clue what to do if I had actually found a clam :-). I hope something will turn up that will work better, too, I don't place my hopes in things like this MIT discovery at all, but can be convinced to try a new med in a very low dosage if they won't force me to up the dose or keep taking it if I have a bad reaction. Some people are under court orders to take their meds. And some people who have increased anxiety when they first go on SSRI's get past it with anti-anxiety medication, but it wasn't working for me. When they tried an MAO inhibitor on me, can't remember the name of it now, nardil, I threatened to get a lawyer if they tried to make me take any more of it, and it was not an idle threat. The doctor backed off instantly. I lost control of my bladder and woke up 15 times a night, felt like lying down when I tried to go out for a walk in the park, gave it a fair shot, didn't make anything one bit better, didn't feel like hurting myself or anyone though.

I am thankful to have something that works at all. I took imipramine at a high dose for over 30 years that only half worked the whole time, then quit working. I tried to go back on it, but now that I got it out of my system, it can't handle that any more either.

Then I went to the credit union to deposit a check, they put a hold on it. Why do you put a hold on it, I need it to pay bills? It's an out-of-state check. I said they didn't put a hold on the last one. Why do they sometimes put a hold on a check from the same person and account and sometimes they don't? She scrolls back a few months and couldn't find a deposit that matched (I was off a little) since May. I said it is on there. I am going home and logging in, and I will find it (thinking now what have they done to mess up my account, they had a new form when I went inside instead of drive-thru because I wanted a new checkbook cover. Anyway, it might not have showed that no hold had been placed on it then. I don't know why they changed the form, but I figured it out but got the suffix to my account wrong. It is 5. I said it was always 9 for that account. They changed it. Hmmm. Then she found the deposit. And I have a hold on my check, no sense in asking to call the supervisor who might call the bank to see if it was ok like he did for me once. Oh well. No sense in arguing with them, I wish they'd make up their minds which way it is going to be. Maybe I'd better go log on and see if they got that right. They changed all that, too, then put an extra layer of security, then changed part of it back because people must have complained.

Like when I got my purse stolen on a weekend and was frantically trying to cancel my cards. My debit card. Who do I call? I took care of it. When I show up first day of business to take care of the rest of it, hot card they call them, I said I already cancelled it but need to put a stop payment on two checks. How did you get the number? It is on the first page of your website.

I'm sorry I got so long-winded, but you really have to keep one step ahead of everything. That is my point. Don't swallow a pill if it doesn't look right. They changed mfr of my blood pressure med, and the pill was a different color when there was no change by the dr in the script. I asked about it. It was ok that time, but sometimes it might not be.

I feel sorry for old people who blindly trust everything. And I really am scared of ending up in a nursing home and being forced to take some psych med that might freak me if my mind is not sharp enough to know what is going on. I feel so sorry for old people like that and know that some of those drugs are bad for them. If you have someone you love in a nursing home and can get the information, check their medication, what it is, what it is supposed to do, why it was prescribed, and make sure it is not wigging them out worse or the wrong med for a heart condition, etc.

If you are in a hospital and aren't out of it, check the meds they are giving you and make sure they are the right dose, etc., kind of hard to do, but do the best you can. It could save your or a loved one's life or save you a lot of extra grief.

Maybe it's not a good idea to talk about some of this, but on the offchance it might help just one person, then I sometimes share some of my personal experience, and do not presume to know more than the doctors because I don't.

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