Alpidem and psychological performance in elderly subjects.

With increasing age there is a concurrent increase in the side effects following psychotropic medication. The necessity of measuring the magnitude of the extent of the side effects using a properly constructed psychometric test battery is illustrated with reference to a dose ranging study compared to acute dose effects of 25, 50 and 100 mg alpidem in a population of elderly volunteers. The study was both placebo and verum (lorazepam 2 mg) controlled and the treatments were administered according to a crossover design with each subject acting as their own control. The effects of the verum were evident on all the tests and under these conditions there was no effect on psychological differences following doses of 25 and 50 mg alpidem. There was an initial deterioration one hour after dosing following 100 mg alpidem which was readily attenuated by three hours. No differences with any of the doses of alpidem were able to be detected at any other time point even though the verum continued to show the sensitivity of the battery to tests to sedative amnestic sensori-motor and information processing activities.