Testing the effects of hypnotics on memory via the telephone : fact or fiction ?

The two benzodiazapines used in this experiment, namely midazolam and flunitrazepam, have both been shown to have effects on memory processing in laboratory studies. In spite of the potential hazards involved in real life testing, it should be possible to replicate such findings in everyday environm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychopharmacologia 1993-05, Vol.111 (2), p.127-133
Main Authors: JACKSON, J. L, LOUWERENS, J. W, CNOSSEN, F, DE JONG, H. T. P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Double-Blind Method
Drug toxicity and drugs side effects treatment
Female
Flunitrazepam - pharmacology
Humans
Hypnotics and Sedatives - pharmacology
Male
Medical sciences
Memory - drug effects
Memory, Short-Term - drug effects
Mental Processes - drug effects
Midazolam - pharmacology
Middle Aged
Miscellaneous (drug allergy, mutagens, teratogens...)
Neuropsychological Tests
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Sleep - drug effects
Speech
Telephone
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Summary:The two benzodiazapines used in this experiment, namely midazolam and flunitrazepam, have both been shown to have effects on memory processing in laboratory studies. In spite of the potential hazards involved in real life testing, it should be possible to replicate such findings in everyday environments and it is argued that a successful replication would be a very meaningful extension to the existing laboratory data. The present study was successful in producing significant "hangover" effects in healthy volunteers using a novel "user-friendly" telephone testing technique. Compared to placebo, the two hypnotics reduced speed of processing in tasks which required retrieval from long-term semantic memory (semantic verification) and the manipulation of material in working memory (syntactic reasoning). We suggest that this new method offers the potential for carrying out large-scale psychopharmacological studies with real patients and achieves a meaningful step forward in the search for ecological validity.
ISSN:0033-3158
1432-2072
DOI:10.1007/BF02245513