Amobarbital dose effects on Wada memory testing

We investigated the relationship of amobarbital dosage to Wada memory performance in 72 patients who have subsequently undergone unilateral anterior temporal lobectomy (left, 39; right, 33). Significantly poorer recognition memory performance following injection ipsilateral to the seizure focus was associated with higher amobarbital dosage administration (r = -0.40; p <0.001). Patients were also dichotomized into "low" (125 mg and lower) and "high" (greater than 125 mg) dosage groups based on ipsilateral dosage, and significantly poorer recognition memory performance (p < 0.001) was observed following higher amobarbital administration. These data demonstrate that amobarbital dosage is one factor that contributes to memory performance during the Wada test.