Acute Effects of Temazepam and Nitrazepam on Psychomotor Skills and Memory

Abstract

1 Twelve pretrained healthy students ingested temazepam 10 mg, nitrazepam 20 mg and placebo 10 mg, each double blind at 1-week intervals in randomized order. Reactive and coordinative skills and critical flicker fusion were measured before each drug intake and 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8 h after it. Short-term memory and paired association learning were measured at 1, 3 and 8 hours. 2 Nitrazepam 10 mg increased reaction and coordination errors and also impaired learning and memory. Temazepam 10 mg impaired coordinative skills; otherwise it differed from nitrazepam but hardly from placebo. Temazepam 20 mg impaired coordination, and learning and memory. Both temazepam 20 mg and nitrazepam 10 mg were experienced as being sedative. All drug effects were clearest during the first 3 h, whereas nitrazepam also impaired learning at 8 hours. 3 The psychomotor responses to drugs were modified by a sequence effect (not at zero tests) which varied depending on the drug and parameter. In multivariance analysis it was included to reveal drug effects. 4 Temazepam 20 mg seems suitable as a hypnotic.

Effects of xylene and alcohol on vestibular and visual functions in man.

“…The exposures were single-blind, and the subjects served as their own controls. The order of the experimental days for the two groups was reversed to cloud the effect of sequence (22) and learning.…”

Combined Effects of Xylene and Alcohol on the Central Nervous System

“…The experiments were single-blind and the subjects acted as their own controls. The order of the experimental situations for Group A and Group B was reversed to eliminate the learning, as well as, the sequence effect (Liljequist & Mattila 1979).…”

Memory and benzodiazepines: Animal and human studies with 1,4‐benzodiazepines and clobzam (1,5‐benzodiazepine)

“…This effect has been reported after intravenous or intramuscular application, as well as after oral intake [Aleniewski et al, 1977; Koeppen Hendler et al, 1980;Liljequist and Mattila, 1979;McKay and Dundee, 1980;Wilson, 19731. The mechanism of action is thought to be an impairment of the process of consolidation of the learned material leading to anterograde amnesia [Clark et al, 1979;Ghoneim and Mewaldt, 19751. However, since benzodiazepines are most commonly used to treat anxiety in outpatients, the amnesia effect, which may be desirable with anesthesia, must be considered an unwanted side effect in ambulatory treatment.…”