Driving performance under the influence of drugs: rationale for, and application of, a new test.

This paper offers the rationale for developing an over-the-road test for assessing drug effects on actual driving performance. It describes the development of such a method and results obtained in three separate experiments where the method was applied. The results support the claim that the test provides a valid measure of drug effects on one type of actual driving performance. The test may eventually find a place in the screening of psychoactive drugs for licensing.

[1]  T. Silverstone,et al.  Drugs and driving. , 1974, British journal of clinical pharmacology.

[2]  A B Clayton,et al.  The Effects of Psychotropic Drugs upon Driving-Related Skills , 1976, Human factors.

[3]  A. Sanders,et al.  Performance Decrement During Prolonged Night Driving , 1977 .

[4]  D. Harris Visual Detection of Driving While Intoxicated , 1980, Human factors.

[5]  J F O'Hanlon,et al.  Diazepam impairs lateral position control in highway driving. , 1982, Science.

[6]  D. Pierce,et al.  The classification of benzodiazepine hypnotics. , 1983, British journal of clinical pharmacology.

[7]  D. Breimer,et al.  Kinetics of five benzodiazepine hypnotics in healthy subjects , 1983, Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics.