BENZODIAZEPINE EFFECTS ON MEMORY TESTS - DEPENDENCE ON RETRIEVAL CUES

Acute effects of oral flunitrazepam (0.5 and 1 mg), nitrazepam (5 and 10 mg) and placebo were assessed on direct (free recall of words and p rose, stem-cued recall) and indirect (stem and fragment completion) me mory tasks. Fifty healthy volunteers took part in this double-blind, i ndependent group study. The relative effects of the two benzodiazepine s (BZs) on memory revealed a different pattern from their effects on a lertness, indicating that their amnesic effects are not totally second ary to their sedative effects. The higher dose of flunitrazepam impair ed free recall of words and prose but not cued recall, while neither d rug affected the two indirect tasks. Differences in drug effects on th e direct and indirect memory tasks were discussed in terms of resource demands of the various tests. We conclude that whether BZs impair per formance on memory tasks depends more on the cues given at retrieval t han the retrieval instructions (direct/indirect). The implications for this in terms of BZ amnestic effects are drawn out for contextual enc oding deficits induced by BZs.