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A temporal twist to a therapeutic technique could block old terrors. Fearful memories can be wiped out for at least a year using a drug-free technique, according to a study done in the United States. The technique exploits the way that human brains store and recall memories. When a long-term memory is recalled, it goes through a brief period of vulnerability, after which it must be stored anew to be remembered again. While the memory is in its fragile state, it can be modified or disrupted. Studies in animals1 have used drugs to interfere with this reconsolidation process, stirring hope...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (Reuters) — Many veterans of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan are clearly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, but it is not at all clear which treatments work to help them, an expert panel from the Institute of Medicine reported Thursday. The only treatment that has been shown to work, the panel said, is exposure therapy, a gradual, step-by-step process in which patients are asked to confront memories of a trauma by recounting it in detail. Veterans Affairs hospitals now use that treatment. “At this time, we can make no judgment about the effectiveness of most psychotherapies or...

AP Medical Writer WASHINGTON --There isn't enough evidence to tell if most treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder work, says a scientific review that highlights the urgency of finding answers as thousands of suffering veterans return from Iraq. The one proven treatment is exposure therapy in which PTSD patients are gradually exposed to sights and sounds that essentially simulate their trauma, to help them learn to cope, advisers to the government reported Thursday. The lack of evidence for other therapies doesn't mean patients should give them up - they still should get whatever care their personal doctors deem most promising, stressed...

The sun shines on an empty Iraqi street. A Blackhawk helicopter circles overhead. The aromas of spices from a market fill the air. Suddenly, insurgents hiding on a roof launch a rocket-propelled grenade. The ground shakes violently and plumes of black smoke cloud your vision. Those images, produced when a person puts on a headset, are at the heart of Virtual Iraq, a simulation created to treat Iraq war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. By repeatedly encountering sights, sounds, smells and rumblings that evoke painful memories, experts say, veterans with the disorder can begin to reprocess traumatic events and...