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Reconsolidation of Extinction Memories

Targeting the reconsolidation of extinction memories: a novel potential strategy to treat anxiety disorders

Molecular Psychiatry volume 20, pages 1264–1265 (2015)Cite this article

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Treatments for anxiety disorders have focused on enhancing fear extinction or blocking fear reconsolidation. New research suggests that enhancing the reconsolidation of fear extinction could be a promising approach.

Extinction-based therapy is a commonly used intervention to attenuate fear responses in patients with anxiety disorders. Fear extinction involves the formation of a new safety memory that suppresses the original fear memory.1 However, fear memories return in a substantial number of patients treated with extinction-based therapies.2 Another therapeutical strategy to reduce fear and anxiety is to interfere with the original fear memory by pharmacologically disrupting its reconsolidation mechanisms,3 but this intervention also has some limitations. For example, clinical treatments usually occur long after the traumatic event, and remote memories are known to be less responsive to reconsolidation blockade.4, 5 Using a rodent model, a recent study by Radiske et al.6 suggests that pharmacologically enhancing the reconsolidation of fear extinction memories may be a promising target for strengthening extinction-based therapies.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr Gregory Quirk (University of Puerto Rico) and Dr Kerry Ressler (McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School) for helpful discussions on this manuscript. This work was supported by NIMH Grants: R36-MH106332 to LER-V, R36-MH105039 to JR-R, K99-MH105549 to FHD-M, and R21-MH101492 to RA; and NARSAD Young Investigator Grant 22434 to RA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Psychiatry and Anatomy & Neurobiology, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, PR, USA

    L E Rosas-Vidal, J Rodriguez-Romaguera & F H Do-Monte

  2. Department of Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, USA

    R Andero

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  1. L E Rosas-Vidal
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  2. J Rodriguez-Romaguera
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  3. F H Do-Monte
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  4. R Andero
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Correspondence to R Andero.

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Rosas-Vidal, L., Rodriguez-Romaguera, J., Do-Monte, F. et al. Targeting the reconsolidation of extinction memories: a novel potential strategy to treat anxiety disorders. Mol Psychiatry 20, 1264–1265 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2015.136

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