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A comparison of the effects of a secondary task and lorazepam on cognitive performance

Psychopharmacology Research Unit, UMDS Division of Pharmacology, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, UK

In order to test whether the lorazepam-induced impairments in a variety of cognitive tasks were similar to those of divided attention, the effects of lorazepam (2.5 mg) in healthy volunteers were compared with those requiring subjects to perform an additional task (detecting silences superimposed onto classical music). Neither treatment impaired implicit memory or judgements of frequency. Both treatments impaired performance in tests of speed, lorazepam having the greatest effect on number cancellation and the additional task having the greatest effect on simple reaction time. Both treatments impaired performance in a coding task, in a test of explicit episodic memory and in judgements of recency (indicating impaired coding of contextual information). Lorazepam significantly reduced performance in a word completion task, but this was unimpaired in the group performing the additional task. In general, the pattern of results suggests that there are similarities between the effects of divided attention and lorazepam treatment, and that lorazepam-induced cognitive impairments are not restricted to explicit tests of episodic memory.

Key Words: attention • memory • sedation • recency • frequency • benzodiazepines

Journal of Psychopharmacology, Vol. 6, No. 2, 258-264 (1992)
DOI: 10.1177/026988119200600219


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