The effects of alcohol, benzodiazepines, zopicione, sedative antidepressant drugs, carbamazepine, and ebastine were studied in four double-blind, crossover and placebo-controlled studies with a total of 60 healthy volunteers. The relationships between blood alcohol concentrations and blood benzodiazepine concentrations, and psychomotor performance on the clinical test for drunkenness were studied in two field studies using medicolegal data files on a total of 387,770 Finnish drivers. Psychomotor laboratory tests were sensitive in revealing the effects of drugs and drug-drug combinations. Alcohol clearly impaired performance on the clinical test for drunkenness in both crossover and field studies. Single drugs alone had only minor effects on the clinical test for drunkenness, but this test detected effects of drug-drug and drug-alcohol combinations. Blood benzodiazepine concentrations were associated with impaired performance on the clinical test for drunkenness. It is concluded that the clinical test for drunkenness reveals the effects of alcohol, drug-drug, and drug-alcohol combinations better than those of single drugs alone which, in turn, are easily detected with psychomotor laboratory tests. (A)
Samenvatting