The acute and chronic performance effects of alprazolam and lorazepam in the elderly: relationship to duration of treatment and self-rated sedation.

摘要: We examined the acute performance and sedative effects of single high low doses alprazolam lorazepam, both before after chronic, 3-week b.i.d. treatment in elderly adults. The chronic also were this parallel, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Initial significantly impaired total recall increased intrusion errors. High delayed critical flicker fusion threshold (CFF). Only with high-dose intrusions self-rated sedation. Single-dose rechallenge was associated less impairment than initial challenge memory tasks but not discriminant reaction time (DRAT) task. For most measures, development tolerance only partial; still produced significant deficits relation to placebo. task-specific depended on drug type dosage. Despite impairments various functions, CFF, DRAT, volunteers did report drug-induced changes