EFFECTS OF ETHANOL AND TEMAZEPAM ON PERFORMANCE IN MEMORY AND PSYCHOMOTOR TASKS - A DOSE-RESPONSE COMPARISON

In order to compare the effects of ethanol and a benzodiazepine on psy chomotor performance and memory, 15 subjects (nine male, six female) a ged 20-27 years took part in a five-period crossover study in which th ey received by mouth in randomised order: (1) ethanol 0.88 g/kg, maxim um 66 g for males, 55 g for females; (2) ethanol, 0.75 of condition 1; (3) temazepam 20 mg; (4) temazepam 15 mg; (5) placebo. Both drugs led to significant subjective drunkenness and drowsiness; drunkenness was more marked for ethanol, drowsiness for temazepam. Psychomotor slowin g in Digit/Symbol substitution tasks was similar for the two drugs. In the Four-Choice Reaction-Time Task, subjects on ethanol tended to res pond faster during the sections of the task where a repetitive sequenc e of stimuli was given, while those on temazepam slowed down. In the s ections with random stimulus sequences, both drugs led to slowing. Eth anol, but not temazepam, led to increased errors in this task. The eff ect of ethanol on long-term memory in the Buschke selective reminding task was very marked. The trend for temazepam was in the same directio n, but not statistically significant. All performance effects were dos e-dependent, except the speeding on the Four-Choice task, where the tw o doses of ethanol had similar effects. These results show that dissoc iations occur between ethanol and temazepam, ethanol producing more er rors at a similar degree of slowing of performance. The effects of eth anol on memory are particularly marked relative to its sedative effect . (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.