The effects of acute treatment with tandospirone, diazepam, and placebo on driving performance and cognitive function in healthy volunteers

Abstract

To assess the effects of two anxiolytics, diazepam and tandospirone, on driving performance from methodological viewpoints taking frequent rear-end collisions into account. In this double-blinded, three-way crossover trial, 18 healthy males received acute doses of 20 mg tandospirone (TSP), 5 mg diazepam (DZP), and placebo (PCB). The subjects were administered three driving tasks-road tracking, car following, and harsh braking-performed using a driving simulator and three cognitive tasks-Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Continuous Performance Test, and N-back test-at baseline and at 1 and 4 h post-dosing. The Stanford Sleepiness Scale scores were also assessed. DZP nonsignificantly increased the percent change of brake reaction time (BRT) as compared to PCB at 4 h post-dosing. TSP nonsignificantly decreased the percent change of BRT as compared to PCB. Consequently, there was a significant difference in the percent change of BRT between DZP and TSP at 4 h post-dosing. For the remaining tasks, no statistically significant effects of treatment were observed. Acute doses of DZP significantly impaired the harsh-braking performance as compared to acute doses of TSP. These findings suggest that TSP may be used more safely in patients' driving activities.