Simulated Evaluation of Drug-Impaired Psychomotor Performance

Richmond R,915 East Market Street, Box 12230, Searcy, Ar, Usa

doi:10.19070/2167-910x-1400021

Richmond R, 915 East Market Street, Box 12230, Searcy, Ar, Usa

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.19070/2167-910x-1400021

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Abstract

The purpose of this placebo-controlled, randomized-crossover study was to evaluate a computer-based divided-attention task as a method for measure impaired human psychomotor performance. The ability of the divided-attention task to detect and differentiate was evaluated using single oral doses of placebo, caffeine and diphenhydramine. Ten healthy men were the subjects of the study. Sub- ject performance on divided-attention was compared with tests of short-term memory and a set of visual analogue scales. The study also assessed potential learning and boredom effects associated with the testing procedures. The results indicate a divided-attention task can detect and differentiate effects of diphenhydramine from those of caffeine and placebo; however, it cannot differentiate effects of caffeine at the doses utilized from that of placebo. Visual analogue scale results corroborated these findings. Observations show that the short-term memory test was not sensitive to the effects of study medication. While the results observed with this convenient, computer-based divided-attention task are promising, additional studies need to be conducted with other classes of CNS-active drugs and over a range of doses.

Highlights

Many common side-effects associated with CNS-active drugs relate to the potential for impaired psychomotor performance
Following diphenhydramine 100mg (DPH) treatment Divided-Attention Task (DAT) scores remained essentially unchanged during the first three time intervals, but performance declined to a mean maximum change in DAT score of -7.1 at 210 minutes and did not return to baseline
The primary objectives of the investigation were to validate the ability of a divided-attention task to detect and differentiate the effects of placebo, diphenhydramine and caffeine on psychomotor performance, and to compare divided-attention task scores with those obtained with other tests that are commonly used to detect drug-induced changes in performance

Summary

Introduction

Many common side-effects associated with CNS-active drugs relate to the potential for impaired psychomotor performance. A number of techniques have been used to determine the effects of drugs on these functions, most measure only single performance variables Such tests may be valid and are often relied upon to indicate some degree of impairment or change in performance, they can be limited in their sensitivity and specificity [1]. Some drugs used medicinally for which divided-attention tasks have been employed to evaluate side effects or adverse reactions include antihistamines [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11], opioids [12,13,14,15], sedatives [16], stimulants [4,[17,18,19]] and psychotherapeutic agents [15,18,[2027]], among others [28,29,30,31,32]. Their application with therapeutic drugs has been relatively limited and greater focus has been on validating their use in evaluating the effects of recreational drugs including alcohol [18,19,[24,25,26,27],[33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59]] marijuana [36,52,55,56,[60,61,62]], and ecstasy [63]

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