In December 2019, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak occurred and aroused global attention.¹ It has infected more than 6.1 million people and caused 376 000 deaths worldwide across 216 countries, areas, or territories according to June 3, 2020, data from the World Health Organization.² In contrast to previous epidemics and pandemics, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome, COVID-19 is more contagious and spreads faster.³

Disrupting Drug Memories: In drug recovery programs, conditioned responses to drug cues can be inhibited by extinction protocols. However, extinguished behavioral responses can return after renewed exposure to the drug itself, or to drug-associated paraphernalia, and sometimes these responses reemerge spontaneously. Attempts have been made to disrupt cue-memory reconsolidation or to strengthen extinction learning, but these efforts have often relied on pharmacological agents that either are not approved for human use or cause problematic side effects. Xue et al. (p. 241 ; see the Perspective by Milton and Everitt ) have tried to circumvent the limitations of pharmacological approaches in daily retrieval trials conducted in rats within the short timeframe of the “reconsolidation window” before the extinction sessions reduced drug-induced reinstatement, spontaneous recovery, and renewal of drug seeking. When translated to heroin-addicted humans, similar retrieval trials before extinction sessions impaired cue-induced heroin craving up to 6 months later. This retrieval-extinction procedure is thus a promising non-pharmacological treatment for addiction.