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: A placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover trial in 11 healthy male volunteers compared clinical sedation and psychomotor function after intravenous injection of midazolam (0.05, 0.1, or 0.15 mg/kg), diazepam (0.15 or 0.3 mg/kg), or placebo (saline). The depth of sedation was estimated at 5-10-min intervals during the first hour after injection. A comprehensive battery of psychomotor tests was used to collect objective data of psychomotor performance before drug injection and 1, 3, 5, and 7 h after injection. Midazolam (0.15 mg/kg) produced the highest scores of sedation and most impairment of psychomotor performance. In most tests, the maximal psychomotor effects seen after 0.3 mg/kg of diazepam did not reach those of 0.1 mg/kg of midazolam. Although the strongest psychomotor effects were induced by midazolam, these effects disappeared sooner than those of diazepam. By 5 h after injection, 0.3 mg/kg of …