Abstract
The effects of 10 mg orally-administered diazepam on various aspects of cognition were examined in ten male subjects. Diazepam produced a subjective sense of cognitive impairment and impaired auditory vigilence, immediate recognition of twice presented words, and context-dependent free recall. There was a trend for a significant proportion of subjects to show impairment in delayed recognition of twice-presented words. There was no impairment of context-independent semantic memory, or of subjects' ability to judge how well they had performed on the free recall task. In fact, subjects' subjective sense of cognitive impairment was correlated with their performance on context-dependent memory tasks.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson JR, Bower GH (1972) Recognition and retrievel processes in free recall. Psychol Rev 79:97–123
Brown J, Brown MW, Bones JB (1983) Effects of lorazepam on rate of forgetting, on retrievel from semantic memory and on manual dexterity. Neuropsychologia 21:501–512
Clark EO, Glanzer M, Turndorf H (1979) The pattern of memory loss resulting from intravenously administered diazepam. Arch Neurol 36:296–300
Fuld PA, Katzman R, Daview P, Terry RD (1982) Intrusions as a sign of Alzheimer dementia: Clinical and pathological verification. Ann Neurol 11:155–159
Ghoneim MM, Merwaldt SP, Berie JL, Hinrichs JV (1981) Memory and performance effects of single and 3 week administration of diazepam. Psychopharmacology 73:147–151
Ghoneim MM, Hinrichs JV, Meiraldt SP (1984) Dose-response analysis of the behavioral effects of diazepam: I. Learning and memory. Psychopharmacology 82:291–295
Hartley L (1980) Diazepam: human learning of different materials. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 4:81–89
Hartley LR, Spencer J, Williamson J (1982) Anxiety, diazepam and retrievel from semantic memory. Psychopharmacology 76:291–293
Hasher L, Zacks RT (1979) Automatic and effortful processes in memory. J Exp Psychol (Gen) 108:386–388
Jacoby LL, Witherspoon D (1982) Remembering without awareness. Can J Psychol 36:300–324
Jones DM, Lewis MJ, Spriggs TLB (1978) The effects of low doses of diazepam on human performance in group administered tasks. Br J Clin Pharmacol 333–337
Peterson RC, Ghoneim MM (1980) Diazepam and human memory: influence on acquisition retrievel and state dependent learning. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 4:81–89
Roy-Byrne P, Weingartner H, Bierer L, Post RM (1986) Effortful and automatic cognitive processes in depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry (in press)
Tulving E (1972) Episodic and semantic memory. In: Tulving E, Donaldson W (eds) Organization and memory. Academic, London
Weingartner H, Grafman J, Kaye W, Martin P (1983) Forms of cognitive failure. Science 221:380–382
Weingartner H, Burns S, Diebel R, Lewitt PA (1984a) Cognitive impairments in Parkinson's disease: distinguishing between effortful and automatic cognitive processes. Psychiatry Res 11:223–235
Weingartner H, Smallberg SA, Newman RP (1984b) Effortful and automatic memory effects of dopamine. Neurology 34:805–807
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Roy-Byrne, P.P., Uhde, T.W., Holcomb, H. et al. Effects of diazepam on cognitive processes in normal subjects. Psychopharmacologia 91, 30–33 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00690922
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00690922