http://goo.gl/Dvnj7s
The targeted modulation of gene activity and cellular signaling pathways could provide a new approach to the treatment of fear and anxiety states according to the recent findings of a project sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund FWF.
Fear extinction is a classical method used in anxiety therapy: memories of negative - anxiety-producing - experiences can be "overwritten" by new learning involving positive (safe) associations. If you have ever been bitten by a dog, you are bound to be afraid of dogs. But if you subsequently have repeated encounters with dogs with no ill effects, the fear will fade. As simple as this method sounds and as effective as it may be, it does not work equally well for everyone. In an FWF project entitled "Epigenetic Mechanisms of Disturbed Memory Regulation" within the Special Research Programme (SFB) of "Cell Signaling in Chronic CNS Disorders", Nicolas Singewald set out to find out why that is so and how extinction can be boosted.