Recovery after intravenous sedation. A comparison of clinical and paper and pencil tests used in assessing late effects of diazepam.

Twelve healthy subjects received intravenously 0-15 mg/kg of diazepam twice, with a two-week interval between doses. They were tested in a cross-over manner before and after the injection either with a clinical test battery plus paper and pencil tests, or with a carefully selected psychomotor test battery having a correlation to real traffic behavior. Neither the clinical tests nor the paper and pencil tests demonstrated impairment of performance 1/2 and 2 1/2 hours after the injection, whereas the psychomotor tests revealed considerable impairment of reactive and co-ordinative skills 2 1/2 hours after the injection. The results stress the importance of the presence of an escort when patients are discharged from hospital after outpatient anaesthesia or sedation.