Lorazepam as night sedation and premedication: a comparison with diazepam

Fifty healthy female patients scheduled for surgery were randonly allocated into two groups in a double-blind study. One group received lorazepam 2.5 mg orally at 2200 h on the evening before surgery as night sedation, and again at 0800 h on the morning before surgery as premedication. The second group received diazepam 10 mg orally at the samte times. The quality of sleep the night before surgery was superior in the lorazepam group (p less than 0.02). The frequency of effective sedation produced pre-operatively was similar in both groups. Although the incidence of amnesia for visual stimuli following lorazapam was higher (p less than 0.05) than with diazepam, there was no difference in the recall of auditory and painful stimuli. The overall incidence of side effects was similar for each drug and at the dosage used no difference was found in the time to awaken from anaesthesia.