Citation

Laurell H, Tornros J. J. Traffic Med. 1991; 19(1): 9-13.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, International Association for Accident and Traffic Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Twenty-four healthy volunteers, screened as moderate drinkers and not using drugs, were paid subjects in the study. The design was doubleblind, randomized, cross-over. Medications were: flunitrazepam, 2 mg; flurazepam, 30 mg; triazolam, 0.5 mg; placebo. Each drug was ingested on four consecutive nights at bedtime. Nine hours after the fourth intake, performance testing was carried out. Immediately after, alcohol was ingested. When the blood alcohol concentration reached 0.05 percent, performance testing was repeated. The driving task was to negotiate a distance of 20 km as fast as possible in a sophisticated driving simulator. In the case of a crash, the driver had to wait for 20 seconds before driving could resume. It was found that performance was affected by drug intake whereas no drug x alcohol interaction was evident; performance was worse after flurazepam than after any of the other two active drugs, regardless whether alcohol had been consumed or not.

Keywords

Ethanol impaired driving; Drug impaired driving