Taking a single pill of an anti - incendiary drug immediately after a traumatic case could help people in the outgrowth of forgetting intrusive memories , according to a raw visitation at University College London ( UCL ) . It ’s still extremely former days for the enquiry , but the squad behind the project suggests that this treatment has some potential to aid some people with post - traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) .

The drug in question is hydrocortisone , an anti - instigative steroid used to treat status such as arthritis . This is a material body of Hydrocortone , the so - called " stress endocrine " that ’s well have it away for producing the " fighting or flight " reaction .

In the new work , 60 people were given 30 mg of hydrocortisone and 60 were given a placebo drug . The participant were then shown scenes of “ utmost violence ” from the roentgen - rated Gallic psychological thrillerIrréversible .

They regain that the group who were given hydrocortisone a few minutes after being shown several very disconcerting videos had less distressing intrusive memory than those who had been given a placebo drug .

Of course , watching a shocking movie can not be compare to a traumatic life event and there ’s no reading yet that the determination could be applied to people whoexperience tangible - life trauma .

However , the researchers believe their written report highlights how hydrocortisone might impact the consolidation of intrusive negativememories . It ’s not sure how this chemical mechanism works , but it is hump that high-flown levels of cortisol , the consistence ’s main stress hormone , can have a profound effect on emotional and cognitive processing .

" haunting distressing , involuntary or ' intrusive ' memories are a core feature of speech of PTSD . Unlike other psychological disorders , the onslaught of PTSD stimulate by a single trauma can reliably be trace back to the occurrence of a specific , often liveliness - threatening outcome that mother long - go intrusive memories " , Vanessa Hennessy , lead source and PhD nominee at UCL ’s Division of Psychology & Language Sciences , said in astatement .

" The findings describe here work up on premature studies that target the emotions that underlie involuntary memory board , with the objective of reduce how often they happen and how vivid they are – whilst still leaving the ability to call back the memory voluntarily " , she added .

Interestingly , the squad also note that men and women answer differently to the drug depend on the levels of sex activity hormones in their physical structure . military man with high levels of estrogen appeared to have the least upsetting memories for a calendar week after watching the picture . Conversely , woman with high horizontal surface of estrogen appear to have the highest level of bad memories .

This led the researchers to conclude that studies should search further at how sex hormone levels affect the establishment of memories in people with PTSD , and may act upon the means theyrespond to treatments .

" Our work show how significant it is to do careful experiments with healthy people to work out whether and how a drug like hydrocortisone could work . After all , our results seem to show that there might be conditions that make the drug harmful in some people,“Hennessycontinued .

The study was published in the journalTranslational Psychiatry .