{"id":330329,"date":"2026-03-05T13:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/330329\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T13:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:29:08","slug":"a-controversial-drug-promises-to-lessen-their-sting-some-experts-are-sounding-the-alarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/330329\/","title":{"rendered":"A controversial drug promises to lessen their sting. Some experts are sounding the alarm."},"content":{"rendered":"

This is part of\u00a0Breakup Week<\/a>. We just can\u2019t do this anymore. <\/p>\n

A medical treatment that can repair a broken heart sounds like the stuff of science fiction. It was, in fact, the beguiling premise of the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which depicted two ex-lovers trying to escape their pain by having all memories of one another erased from their brains. The movie presents the procedure as dystopian and counterproductive, but the prospect also sounded tempting. Moving on from a breakup, happy and open-hearted, without having to wait in agony for time to heal all wounds? Who could resist?<\/p>\n

The concept stirred the imagination of psychiatry professor Alain Brunet. Brunet made his name researching treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder that use propranolol, a beta-blocker commonly used to treat high blood pressure, which, some studies suggest, can dull the impact of traumatic memories when given under specific circumstances. The protocol he developed and trademarked, the Brunet Method, has helped patients grappling with the aftermath of all manner of harrowing incidents: veterans returning from war zones, survivors of sexual abuse, victims of terrorist attacks, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no limit to the type of trauma or memories that we can treat. It works just the same,\u201d Brunet said. It stood to reason that the drug could speed along recovery from other painful experiences, too.<\/p>\n

So about a decade ago, when one of Brunet\u2019s students at McGill University came looking for a topic for her dissertation, he thought back to the Eternal Sunshine treatment and suggested she look into whether his PTSD protocol could help people get over heartbreak. The resulting study, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders<\/a> in 2022, found that 85 percent of the 61 victims of \u201cromantic betrayal\u201d who underwent Brunet\u2019s propranolol treatment saw marked improvements in their symptoms of distress. The results presented an irresistible narrative for reporters: \u201cThis Drug Can Mend a Broken Heart<\/a>,\u201d read one representative headline that winter.<\/p>\n

But Brunet recalled that some observers belittled the study. They accused the authors of pathologizing a normal life experience and robbing participants of the personal growth that can come from overcoming adverse events. \u201cThere\u2019s this Judeo-Christian idea that you have to suffer, that suffering is good for you,\u201d Brunet said. \u201cWell, up to a certain point, yes. But does that mean that we should not have palliative care? If you have a headache, does it mean that you should not take Advil?\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Brunet, struggling to get over a former partner\u2014especially in cases of duplicity, sudden abandonment, or infidelity, the main issues at play in the study\u2014may be the foremost reason why people seek mental health care. A potential pharmaceutical solution is not just a new tool for therapists, he said. It\u2019s \u201cquestioning our relationship with psychological suffering\u201d altogether.<\/p>\n

Even aside from its potential as a heartbreak remedy, propranolol is having a moment. The drug blocks the effects of adrenaline, such as shakiness and a racing heart, making it a helpful crutch for nerve-racking events. Aided in part<\/a> by telehealth companies like Hims & Hers<\/a> and Kick<\/a>, prescriptions have risen 28 percent since 2020, with an increase of about 530,000 patients<\/a> between 2020 and 2023 alone. Celebrities, podcast hosts, and influencers are openly promoting<\/a> the medication as a must-have for big occasions and a cure-all for everyday stress<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though the companies that hawk the drug mostly market it as a performance-anxiety pill, they hint that it could have broader applications. On the website for Kick, a blog post<\/a> tells the story of a woman who started taking beta-blockers for work presentations, a common use case for consumers who aren\u2019t taking them for medical reasons. One day, the woman decided to pop one of the pills before meeting her ex for drinks. During their conversation, under the influence of propranolol, \u201cshe felt in control of her thoughts and in control of her feelings,\u201d the post reads. The woman got closure and was supposedly \u201cable to just move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some people regularly take propranolol to deal with physical symptoms of angst after a breakup, especially in the U.K.<\/a>, where it has been specifically approved to treat anxiety. (In the U.S., anxiety is an off-label use, and some research<\/a> has disputed the effectiveness of beta-blockers for people with anxiety disorders.) Doctors might also prescribe it to treat very real \u201cbroken heart syndrome<\/a>,\u201d whereby the risk of heart attack spikes in the days and weeks after a loved one dies.<\/p>\n

The treatment at the center of Brunet\u2019s study is something different altogether. Instead of aiming to block symptoms directly, it seeks lasting results by targeting a process in the brain known as memory reconsolidation.<\/p>\n

Memories aren\u2019t like books in a library, replaced in pristine condition after they\u2019re taken out to be read. They\u2019re more like sculptures made of wet clay, prone to being reshaped with each handling. Whenever the brain recalls a given event, the memory must be encoded anew in long-term storage. Some substances interfere with that re-saving, or reconsolidation. Propranolol is one of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you recall an emotional memory under the influence of a memory reconsolidation blocker like propranolol, this memory will be attenuated, degraded\u2014mostly its emotional strength,\u201d Brunet said.<\/p>\n

Researchers first discovered<\/a> the malleability of long-term memories about 25 years ago, in a study on rats. That led Brunet and others to experiment with propranolol<\/a> as a way to destabilize traumatic memories. In one landmark study<\/a> published in 2015, Dutch psychology professor Merel Kindt exposed one group of participants with arachnophobia to a tarantula in a jar for two minutes, then gave them a dose of propranolol. She gave another group a placebo, and gave a third group propranolol without the tarantula exposure, to see if the drug alone could cure their fear of spiders. The arachnophobes who got the exposure and the drug that first time were much less anxious in subsequent sessions with the tarantula; some were even able to hold it in their hands. Their improvement lasted at least a year, when Kindt stopped evaluating them. The other two groups of participants remained just as fearful as before.<\/p>\n

The standard protocol for phobias has long been exposure therapy. If patients are exposed to their triggers enough times, their emotional response will eventually decrease, Kindt said. But this treatment has a major drawback. \u201cThe memory itself remains intact, and this explains the high percentages of relapse,\u201d Kindt said. By taking propranolol while their fear memory was activated\u2014and thus destabilized\u2014participants may have weakened it more permanently.<\/p>\n

That was the hope with Brunet\u2019s study on heartbroken Canadians whose ex-partners had cheated or perpetrated other misdeeds. \u201cRomantic betrayal is really life-shattering. And so what happens is that people keep thinking about it all the time,\u201d Brunet said, explaining that it\u2019s not entirely dissimilar from more severe forms of trauma. One participant, Anne Lantoine, had moved to Montreal from France with her daughter while her husband stayed back in Marseille with their two other adult children to complete the sale of their house. After she applied for permanent residency for their whole family, Lantoine found out that her husband wasn\u2019t coming: He had filed for divorce and moved his mistress into their home, which was technically Lantoine\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Lantoine was a wreck. She suffered recurring nightmares and found it hard to function in the daytime due to lack of sleep. \u201cWhat put me in this mental state was not because he wanted to divorce,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was the way he treated me.\u201d When she saw a recruitment announcement for the propranolol study, she signed up.<\/p>\n

At the time, she was still in denial that her symptoms of what psychologists call \u201cadjustment disorder\u201d\u2014acute distress in response to a stressful event\u2014were severe enough to be affected by medical treatment. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect anything. In a way, the only thing I was sure of was that it wouldn\u2019t hurt,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

At her first session, Lantoine was given a dose of propranolol and, after it kicked in, asked to write down the story of her husband\u2019s betrayal. She also filled out a survey that assigned a numerical value to how much it was disrupting her life. Each week for the next four weeks, Lantoine returned to the hospital, after taking another propranolol pill, for a 25-minute session in which she would read her written narrative aloud to a graduate student, then take the survey again.<\/p>\n

Around the third or fourth session, Lantoine noticed a change. It felt like less of a burden to go to the session, and it was less painful to read the text. Her nightmares became less frequent and severe. She could still remember everything that happened with her husband, but it didn\u2019t hurt as much to think about. \u201cI felt less trapped in my problems,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Over the six weeks of the study, the vast majority of participants saw a \u201cclinically meaningful\u201d reduction in their symptoms. The results persisted at a follow-up four months after the end of their treatment.<\/p>\n

But the study shows some weaknesses. There was no placebo group, just a pre-treatment waiting period of four weeks\u2014during which the subjects\u2019 symptoms mostly did not improve\u2014to gave researchers a baseline comparison. It is possible, then, that reliving their heartbreak over and over again to an empathetic listener may have contributed to the participants\u2019 progress in addition to the drug. As with any drug, there\u2019s also the possibility of placebo effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n

David J. Ebaugh, an Oregon-based trauma recovery therapist<\/a>, has his own reasons for skepticism about propranolol\u2019s use as a breakup drug. \u201cPropranolol is really pretty good for helping to process experiences that are really visceral, in which there\u2019s not really an emotional component to it beyond fear,\u201d he said. Phobias, in other words, are a tried-and-true use case for the blunt instrument of a beta-blocker. Complex emotional recovery, like in the aftermath of sexual abuse or a broken heart, can demand a more refined approach.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because much of the damage lies in the way we make meaning of these experiences and the stories we tell ourselves about why terrible things happen to us. People often come out of abuse or romantic betrayal burdened by self-blame, shame, or a feeling that they are unworthy of love. \u201cYou learn that the world is not a safe place. You learn that you don\u2019t have any kind of sense of agency,\u201d Ebaugh said. If you come out of a breakup with a distrust of all romantic relationships, propranolol is not going to help you get over that. It also carries the risk of side effects<\/a> that non-pharmaceutical therapies do not.<\/p>\n

Ebaugh points to recent research<\/a> that showed no difference between propranolol and a placebo in the treatment of 46 patients with PTSD. In his trauma work, Ebaugh prefers other therapeutic techniques that involve memory reconsolidation, like eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and brainspotting, both<\/a> of which<\/a> have also been used by clinicians to help patients recover from breakups. Like the propranolol protocol, these therapies attempt to permanently defang the traumatic memory while it is taken out of brain storage (and thus pliable), but without the use of a drug. Instead, by talking through the memory while the patient performs specific physical actions, the therapist helps the patient arrive at new insights and a feeling of safety and resolution, which are then stored with the memory in place of raw pain.<\/p>\n

Brunet believes his treatment is easier on patients than these alternatives. Propranolol makes it less stressful to talk about difficult memories, because it blocks the physical symptoms of anxiety, whereas with EMDR and brainspotting, \u201cyou essentially have to do it cold turkey,\u201d Brunet said. \u201cI have nothing against EMDR, but I\u2019m a researcher. I\u2019m interested in the treatments of tomorrow, not the treatments of today.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Christina Cauterucci
\n Something Strange Is Happening With Breakups. It\u2019s Making It Much Harder to Date.
\n Read More\n <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

But thanks in part to Brunet\u2019s research, propranolol trauma therapy is a treatment of today. Thousands of clinicians have taken Brunet\u2019s three-day training and offer his propranolol protocol as a therapeutic option. He keeps a directory on his website<\/a> for patients seeking a nearby practitioner. Not all of them offer the treatment for breakups, but those that do are joining a burgeoning (and highly profitable) breakup industry<\/a>, including breakup coaches, breakup retreats, breakup dietitians, and clinicians offering ketamine therapy and nerve blocks<\/a> for the recently dumped.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A Beloved Actor\u2019s Face Is Now Unrecognizable. But It\u2019s Us Who Should Be Looking in the Mirror.
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<\/p>\n

Years Ago, Dan Savage Told Everyone to DTMFA. Now He\u2019s Not Sure We Should Be Following His Advice.
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<\/p>\n

Something Strange Is Happening With Breakups. It\u2019s Making It Much Harder to Date.
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<\/p>\n

My Girlfriend and I Got Stuck in an Elevator. She Picked That Exact Moment to Bring Up What She Saw on My Phone.
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Some experts have cautioned that there may be unintended consequences to taking the emotional charge out of our memories. In a 2012 interview with the New York Times, neuroethicist S. Matthew Liao wondered whether using propranolol to treat military veterans with PTSD could lead to \u201cconscienceless soldiers<\/a>\u201d unbothered by the violence of war or the destruction they\u2019ve wrought. \u201cMemories can affect your personal identity,\u201d he said. \u201cThey can impact who you think you are.\u201d For what it\u2019s worth, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the inspiration for Brunet\u2019s research on romantic betrayal, did not present its mind-wiping treatment as an aspirational procedure. The film can be interpreted as a reminder that painful memories still hold value\u2014or that without the ability to learn from our romantic misadventures, we are doomed to repeat the past.<\/p>\n

Brunet disputes the idea that a little pharmaceutical assist could cheat a patient out of life lessons or salutary inner work. The participants in his study, like Lantoine, were suffering debilitating symptoms of stress years after their relationships dissolved. They needed a lift to get on with their lives.<\/p>\n

Still, Brunet wouldn\u2019t recommend propranolol as a first resort. He suggests the newly brokenhearted try to get by on their own for a while, maybe find a therapist and talk things through. And if they\u2019re still struggling after a couple of months? \u201cThen we\u2019ve got something else to help you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sign up for Slate’s evening newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is part of\u00a0Breakup Week. We just can\u2019t do this anymore. A medical treatment that can repair a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[152436,96575,14114,103,61,60,371,1357,410,413,82,2243],"class_list":{"0":"post-330329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-breakup-week","9":"tag-dating-and-relationships","10":"tag-divorce","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-medication","15":"tag-medicine","16":"tag-mental-health","17":"tag-psychology","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-slate-plus"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}