Reconsolidation Blockade of Intrusive Trauma- and Cocaine-related Memories

Intrusive memories are involuntary recollections of past emotional events that can become pathological and persist over time, particularly in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and cocaine use disorders (CUD). Both PTSD and CUD are characterised by a hypersensitivity and -reactivity to cue-elicited memory reactivation and exhibit common neurological alterations, suggesting shared underlying mechanisms. As intrusive memories significantly contribute to maintaining the cycle of relapse in both disorders, it is important to find a way to attenuate them successfully. Research on memory reconsolidation has led to the development of different (pharmacological) approaches to disrupt the process, which have, however, yielded mixed and unspecific effects so far. The present project aims to investigate the effect of MMP-9 inhibition with minocycline on the reconsolidation of intrusive memories in individuals with CUD or PTSD. Participants will be randomly assigned to a minocycline or placebo group. The study comprises a total of 5 visits during 3 weeks and one follow-up online survey (3 months after the intervention). Participants will receive the study medication before two imagery script-guided memory activation sessions. An ecological momentary assessment (EMA) approach will be employed to track intrusive memories, and glutamate concentration and neural activation will be measured with magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and functional magnetic resonance (fMRI), respectively, before and after the two imagery sessions.