There is a general agreement regarding the deleterious residual sequel
ae associated with benzodiazepine consumption. Most of these effects h
ave been observed after repeated doses or a few hours after ingestion
of the drugs. The goal of this experiment was to evaluate the sequelae
of nocturnal ingestion of a single 10 mg dose of diazepam on attentio
n 10 h after intake of the medication. 42 young, healthy subjects (21
females and 21 males) were divided for the application of three experi
mental conditions (control, placebo and diazepam) following a counterb
alanced plan. Reaction time to both periodic and nonperiodic stimuli a
nd lack of responses (failures) were quantified. Diazepam increased re
action time significantly, and produced a significant increase in the
number of failures.