Benzodiazepines

Benzodiazepines can be administered for singular dosages, or more for a few days, however their effectiveness means they rarely exceed a prescribed dosage of more than two weeks. Continual use otherwise causes severe damages to health, both physical and mental.Common examples of benzodiazepines include of Temazepam, Loprazolam, Lormetazepam and Diazepam.

Anxiety can usually be treated by a referral from a clinical psychologist along with antidepressants however this method is often slow to react. For fast and effective treatment, a dose of a Benzodiazepine can often counteract fluctuations in stress and anxiety levels. Benzodiazepines also have uses in the treatment of epilepsy(diazepam, clonazepam, clobazam), anaesthesia (midazolam), and some motor disorders and occasionally in acute psychoses.

Positive modulators found on the binding sites of benzodiazepine cause amnesic effects. Benzodiazepines effect on short-term memory varies according to the type of memory task. Explicit memory tasks, conscious awareness, were shown to have more impairments than implicit memory tasks, unconscious awareness, which would be relatively unaffected. Many studies have been undertaken in which memory recall is required. Interesting results to one study, which involved inducing hypnotics, was that attempting to immediately recall the test would cause further short-term memory loss. In several studies involving human it was concluded from gathered evidence that the impairment to the short-term memory is due to the attainment of information. Benzodiazepine prevents connections being made which would allow the information to be processed. This disruption causes amnesia.