@article{ref1,
title="The effect of d-methamphetamine on simulated driving performance",
journal="Human psychopharmacology",
year="2012",
author="Silber, Beata Y. and Croft, Rodney J. and Downey, Luke A. and Papafotiou, Katherine and Camfield, David A. and Stough, Con",
volume="27",
number="2",
pages="139-144",
abstract="OBJECTIVES: Methamphetamine is considered to be one of the most popularly abused drugs by drivers; however, its exact effect on driving and driving behaviour has yet to be thoroughly investigated. This being despite methamphetamine's increased prevalence in injured and deceased drivers. METHODS: Twenty healthy recreational illicit stimulant users (10 male and 10 female), aged between 21 and 32 years (mean = 25.4 years, SD = 3.3 years) attended two testing sessions involving oral consumption of 0.42 mg/kg d-methamphetamine or a matching placebo. The drug administration was counter-balanced, double-blind, and medically supervised. At each session driving, performance was assessed 2.5 h post drug administration. RESULTS: d-methamphetamine (0.42 mg/kg) did not significantly impair overall simulated driving performance 2.5 h post drug administration. At the individual driving variable level, participants in the d-methamphetamine condition were observed to be driving slower when an emergency situation occurred (T = 44, p < 0.05), but interestingly, participants in both conditions recorded average speeds in excess of the speed limit (100 km/h) when the emergency situations occurred. The d-methamphetamine condition did also produce four times more infringements where participants did not stop at red traffic light in comparison to the placebo, but this effect was only evident at a trend level (T = 7, p = 0.11). CONCLUSIONS: The findings presented herein suggest that d-methamphetamine administered at the levels supplied did not impair driving performance in a manner consistent with epidemiological evidence. Further research is certainly required to elucidate the effects of various doses of methamphetamine, alone and in combination with other legal and illicit substances. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0885-6222",
doi="10.1002/hup.1238",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hup.1238"
}