Selective effects of zolpidem on human memory functions.
Zolpidem is an imidazopyridine hypnotic with preferential binding affinity for the omega1-benzodiazepine (BZD) receptor. The present double-blind, placebo-controlled study evaluated the effects of orally administered zolpidem (15mg/70kg) on specific memory functions in 16 healthy volunteers using a battery of word and picture memory tasks. Relative to placebo, zolpidem significantly impaired memory for material presented after drug administration when memory was assessed directly by referring subjects back to the prior study episode (explicit memory: recall and recognition) but not when memory was assessed indirectly by evaluating subjects' ability to identify degraded versions of studied stimuli (implicit memory: fragment completion). Zolpidem did not impair explicit memory for material presented before drug administration or memory for previously acquired knowledge (semantic memory: categorization). There was evidence suggesting that zolpidem enhanced explicit and implicit memory for material presented before drug administration and that zolpidem produced a specific deficit in the acquisition of contextual information about material presented after drug administration. Despite zolpidem's unique pharmacological profile, the observed selectivity of zolpidem's memory-impairing effects for particular functions appears qualitatively similar to the selectivity observed with classic BZDs in previous studies.
Mintzer
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MZ
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Behavioral Biology Research Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA.
Griffiths
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RR
D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects; D011725:Pyridines / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D000077334:Zolpidem
D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives; D011725:Pyridines; D000077334:Zolpidem