title: Alertness and memory after sleep deprivation and diazepam intake.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Hospital Veldwijk, Department of Psychological Assessment, Ermelo, The Netherlands. M.Gorissen@inter.NL.net
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gorissen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tielemans
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coenen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003243:Consciousness / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D003975:Diazepam / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents; D003975:Diazepam