Effects - Alertness and memory after sleep deprivation and diazepam intake (1997)

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Description:
J Psychopharmacol. 1997;11(3):233-9.

Gorissen M, Tielemans M, Coenen A.

Benzodiazepines (BZDs) give rise to memory impairments. It has been questioned whether or not these impairments are related to the drug's sedative, alertness-reducing effects. Therefore, in this study, alertness was reduced in healthy subjects both pharmacologically (15 mg diazepam) and non-pharmacologically (24-h sleep deprivation, SD) in order to assess whether these manipulations both gave rise to memory impairments. Twelve subjects were tested using a repeated measures cross-over design. Drug administration was placebo-controlled and double-blind. A subjective alertness reduction was established after diazepam intake and even more after SD. Additionally, performance-disruptive effects were found on psychomotor tasks after both SD and liazepam intake. However, only diazepam, and not SD, impaired delayed recall of a word list and recall of paired associates. Thus a reduction in alertness, i.e. sedation, cannot fully account for BZD-induced memory impairments.

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