Oral temazepam as a premedicant in elderly general surgical patients

In elderly, general surgical patients, oral temazepam 20 mg given in a soft gelatin capsule proved to be a useful light premedicant when given before spinal anaesthesia. In comparison with placebo, it caused preoperative subjective sedation, prevented an increase in heart rate and decreased serum cortisol, but not serum antidiuretic hormone levels. However, simple devices (linear analogue scale, Maddox wing test, critical flicker fusion apparatus) appeared to be quite ineffective in differentiating the clinical effects of temazepam from those of placebo. Temazepam given in a soft gelatin capsule to patients in the supine position had a reasonably fast gastrointestinal absorption, but its blood-lumbar cerebrospinal fluid penetration rate appeared to be quite slow.