THE EFFECTS OF CERTAIN TRANQUILIZERS ABD ALCOHOL UPON KINETIC VISUAL ACUITY

KINETIC VISUAL ACUITY (K.V.A.) IS THE ABILITY TO PERCEIVE A MOVING OBJECT TRAVELLING TOWARDS THE EYE AT A CONSTANT SPEED IN A HORIZONTAL PLANE. USING A FULLY-RANDOMIZED DOUBLE-BLIND PROCEDURE, THE K.V.A. OF FOUR GROUPS OF 20 SUBJECTS (10 MEN AND 10 WOMEN) WAS TESTED UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF TRIFLUOPERAZINE, CHLORDIAZEPOXIDE, HALOPERIDOL, AMYLOBARBITONE SODIUM, AND A PLACEBO. WITHIN EACH TREATMENT, THE SUBJECTS WERE ALSO TESTED WITH AND WITHOUT ALCOHOL. TRIFLUORPERAZINE PRODUCED A SIGNIFICANT IMPAIRMENT IN K.V.A. VALUES FOR MALE SUBJECTS, AND FOR FEMALE SUBJECTS UNDER ALCOHOL. AMYLOBARBITONE SODIUM AND CHLORDIAZEPOXIDE PRODUCED SOME IMPROVEMENT IN K.V.A. VALUES, WHEREAS HALOPERIDOL PRODUCED DIFFERENT EFFECTS IN MALES AND FEMALES. ALCOHOL DID NOT PRODUCE A SIGNIFICANT OVERALL EFFECT UPON K.V.A. VALUES. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT PHYSICIANS SHOULD WARN PATIENTS OF THE POSSIBLE DANGER IN DRIVING DURING THE EARLY STAGES OF TREATMENT.

• Corporate Authors:

  American Association for Automotive Medicine

  801 Green Bay Road
  Lake Bluff, IL  United States  60044

  American Association for Automotive Medicine

  P.O. Box 222
  Morton Grove, IL  United States  60053
• Authors:
  • CLAYTON, A B
  • Mackay, G M
  • BETTS, T A
• Conference:
  • 17th Annual Conference of the American Association for Automotive Medicine
  • Date: 1973-11-0
• Publication Date: 1973

Media Info

• Serial:
  • Issue Number: 17

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alcohols; Drugs; Gender; Testing; Tranquilizers; Vision; Visual perception
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00224456
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: Monograph
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Jul 16 1974 12:00AM