A treatment, metyrapon, used to limit the levels of stress hormone is observed to impart long term impacts of bad memories as it is observed to decline the levels of cortisol hormone, a stress hormone that has a close association with memory recall, claimed a recent study.

However, the medicine is not produced commercially but the market is full of products that exhibit similar chemical composition and therefore must be suggested, it added further.

The lead study author, a Neurological science expert Marie-France Marin had stressed upon the need of such research work that could relieve sufferings of people living with post-traumatic stress disorder.

During the study, 33 subjects were analyzed carefully, who had no previous history of trauma and exposed to a slide show of 11 images along with narration where first four and last three slides were kept neutral with rest of the negative slides, to describe a story of little girl visiting her grandparents and decides to build a bird house.

"The effect is specific to the negative information, so it leaves neutral memories unaffected”, said Marin. "When everyone's cortisol levels are equivalent because the drug has cleared out from the body, the memory trace is still lower in people who had received the metyrapone”.