In This Article Benzodiazepines Are Discussed

In this article Benzodiazepines are discussed. These are widely used drugs which have been used for its profound and specific effects on memory. Benzodiazepines can also be used as a muscle relaxant, an anti-convulsant, an anxiolytic as well as a sedative-hypnotic which all prove useful for hypnosis the night before surgery, as pre anesthetic medication and in the induction of anesthesia. Anesthesiologists have to be aware of the drugs they use in the implementation of anesthesia as a breach of the use of drugs that cause amnesia is considered constitute negligence. Other professions may consider amnesia a negative side effect but anesthesiologists may consider amnesia a main therapeutic aim in administering drugs like benzodiazepines.

The article provides background information on how memories work. The structures of the brain that are thought to be involved in memory and learning are, the hippocampus, cerebellum, cerebral cortex and the amygdala. It is believed that memory and learning are possible due to synapses and the synapses long term potentiation. The storage of information can be found in synaptic plasticity .The Long term potentiation is known to have long lasting assistance in synaptic transmission that ,through certain presynaptic axons, produce a brief high frequency stimulation. The way Benzodiazepines have an effect on a person and his or her memory is through the drugs ability to affect the body's main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, which is -aminobutyric acid or GABA for short. GABA interacts with the GABA -receptor complex which leads to sealing a channel which would normally allow chloride ions to travel through. This leads to a buildup of the ions in the intracellular flow and will inhibit the neurons ability to conduct impulses. The lack of impulses will affect the long term potentiation and not allow storage of information. Stages in memory are the next topics discussed in the article. Memory is not a single process; it is thought to be made up of three different types of memory which are; sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory. Sensory memory is described as "brief sensory impressions that remain after a stimulus has disappeared", which is usually recognition of familiar visual and auditory stimulants. Short term memory can be described as an active store, meaning that a memory can only remain if repeated attention or rehearsal is practiced otherwise it will disappear after a short time. An example would be remembering a cellphone number. If the number is not used over and over again, it will not be stored in the memory. The memory that is the most commonly thought of in terms of describing memory is long term memory. Long term memory is described as storing a lot of information without active effort.

Benzodiazepines effects on memory do not seem to affect short term memory based on tests that have been conducted. The drugs only impair encoding of new information in episodic memory and do not seem to have any effects on the retrieval or retention of information that has been previously stored. It seems learning of information prior to administration of the drug does not have any effects on memory but post administration of the benzodiazepines does seem to impair subjects, resulting in lower levels of learning in the drugged subjects. The drug does not seem to have any retrograde facilitation and actually seems to improve the retention of information pre-administration of the drug. Benzodiazepines also do not seem to affect semantic memory (placing objects into categories such as music in different genres) although it may slow down the process of placing the information into the categories.Sedation and amnesia are then compared when Benzodiazepines are administered. Benzodiazepines produce both amnesia and sedation and it can be assumed that the impaired memory performance is not caused by the effects of the drugs but as a result of the sedation. This is supported by two different experiments where in the first experiment, positive correlations were found between the delay subjects experienced in going back to sleep after performing memory tasks in the night and levels of recall of the tasks in the morning. The second experiment had clearer result showing benzodiazepines amnesia is a specific effect separate from sedative action.

In the next part of the article the sensitivity of memory tasks to benzodiazepines are discussed. There were many different memory tasks which were tested and studied to measure the effects the benzodiazepines had when it came to memory. The classifications of the effects have fallen under three different headings: Insensitive tasks, Tasks with moderate sensitivity and highly sensitivity tasks. Short term memory test, Tests for information acquired before treatment, semantic memory tests and covert memory tests fall under the tasks that are insensitive to benzodiazepines. Memory cards, standard neuropsychological tests, categorized lists of words, recognition tests, tests for highly emotional or meaningful information and tests for automatic processes fall under the heading of tasks with moderate sensitivity to the benzodiazepines. The memory tasks that fall under highly sensitive tasks include; immediate and delayed free recall of a list of 16 or more uncategorized words, serial learning and paired-associated