Memory Facilitation Following the Administration of the Benzodiazepine Triazolam

The benzodiazepine, triazolam, facilitates the retrieval from memory of information presented just before the administration of this drug at doses that impair explicit recall of information presented and remembered after drug administration. This effect was apparent for recall of unrelated words (Experiment 1) as well as highly related stimuli (category exemplars, Experiment 2). Normal volunteers were administered placebo and 4.5 and 6.0 μg/kg of triazolam (Experiment 1) and placebo, 0.250, 0.375 and 0.500 mg of triazolam (Experiment 2) using double-blind crossover designs. The observed effect is interpreted as due to changes in how information is retrieved from memory rather than as a result of either blockade of interference effects or alterations in processes involved in memory consolidation.