Effect of two weeks' treatment with thioridazine, chlorpromazine, sulpiride and bromazepam, alone or in combination with alcohol, on learning and memory in man

Abstract

Forty paid healthy male students participated in two subacute experiments of 6 weeks each. In the first trial 20 of them received bromazepam, thioridazine, and placebo double blind cross over for 2 weeks each, and in the second trial the active agents administered to the other 20 participants were chlorpromazine and sulpiride. The tests used were paired associate learning with nonsense syllables and digit memory span. Before testing the subjects took either an alcoholic or a nonalcoholic bitter drink. As in the previous study from this laboratory, alcohol was found to impair learning capacity. Of the drugs used only bromazepam impaired learning significantly, and the combined effect of alcohol and bromazepam on learning capacity was very deleterious. The adrenolytic effect of drugs did not correlate with their effect on learning. Caution is necessary when prescribing bromazepam for active outpatients at least in doses used in this study.

The Effect of Psychotropic Drugs on the TSH-Response to Thyroliberin (TRH)

“…Even though TR is about 10 times as potent an a-receptor blocker as CPZ when measured with the rabbit aortic strip method [Liuequist et al, 1975] , this difference was not evident in the present experiments. This was due either to the inhomogeneity of the clinical material comprising chronic schizophrenic patients or to the possibility that the doses used exceeded the 'sensitive range' of the dose-response curve.…”

Effects on Learning and Memory of 2-Week Treatments with Chlordiazepoxide Lactam, N-Desmethyldiazepam, Oxazepam and Methyloxazepam, Alone or in Combination with Alcohol

“…Chlordiazepoxide lactam was the only drug which alone impaired associative learning. Also alcohol alone, and all the drugs in combination with alcohol retarded learning acquisition.A number of clinical effects of diazepam, such as symptomatic relief of anxiety, sedative effects, and also the effects on sleep and psychomotor perfor mance, are also shared by its metabolites (Randall et al, 1965; Dasberg et ai, 1974; Nicholson étal, 1976; Palva and Linnoila, 1978).In previous studies we have been concerned with the effects of benzodiaze pines on memory functions (Liljequist et al, 1975(Liljequist et al, , 1978. It was observed that the capacity to acquire new material was impaired after diazepam and bromazepam, whereas diazepam facilitated the recall of orderly consolidated material (Liljequist et al, 1978).…”

Dose‐effect study of levomepromazine on psychomotor and memory tasks in healthy volunteers

“…Some studies have also indicated that chlorpromazine (Turner, 1966;Besser and Duncan, 1967;Hindmarch, 1979, andthioridazine (Szabadi et al, 1980;Theofilopoulos et al, 1984) lower CNS arousal, as evaluated by critical flicker fusion frequency, whereas sulpiride did not (Bartfai and Wiesel, 1986). Chlorpromazine did not, however, significantly affect human memory (Liljequist et al, 1975(Liljequist et al, , 1978.…”