In a breakthrough revelation, it has been uncovered through a novel research that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be treated with the drugs that help people get rid of bad memories. Some of the compounds like histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) are used to wash out terrible memories from the brain.

PTSD is an anxiety disease that affects thousands of people, who had been through violent attacks and major road accidents or disasters. A person suffering with this disease has nightmares, flashbacks, feelings of isolation and poor sleep.

Dr. Li-Huei Tsai, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, US, said that PTSD is often treated by Psychotherapy. In the Psychotherapy treatment, the degree of flexibility depends directly on the efficacy of treatment.

But, this treatment has not been proved successful in those cases, in which traumatic events had occurred many years back.

On Thursday, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said that a new type of therapy, which helps people in deleting fear-based memories, can be used to treat patients with PTSD.

“This study provides a mechanism explaining why old memories are difficult to extinguish and shows that HDACis can facilitate psychotherapy to treat anxiety disorders such as PTSD”, said Dr. Li-Huei Tsai.