A memory-modifying effect can depend on prior exposure and experimental conditions.
Researchers examined fear-memory reconsolidation after chronic ethanol exposure and withdrawal in rats. Reactivated memories resisted midazolam’s disruptive effect. Other manipulations produced different results, and changes in amygdala GABA-A receptor-subunit expression were observed.
The experiment concerned conditioned fear, not ordinary human autobiographical recall or clinical withdrawal treatment efficacy. Receptor changes offered a possible explanation rather than definitive causal proof.
Distinguish memory formation, reactivation and later reconsolidation. The result cannot establish that a person withdrawing from alcohol is immune to benzodiazepine amnesia. Nor does failure in this memory task show failure to treat clinical withdrawal; those are different questions.
Source: PMC4360226, supplied full-text paper. Findings are paraphrased; case-review implications are an interpretation.
Related: Forensic Toxicology: expert analysis and case review.