SOBERING AGENT: EFFECTIVENESS MEASUREMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

Amantadine, Doxapram and Maalox, to determine if they could inhibit the rate of absorption of alcohol into the blood stream and/or antagonize the behavioral impairment induced by alcohol. Fifteen subjects received five experimental treatments (placebo alone, alcohol alone, and alcohol with each of the three drugs) on five occasions separated by one week intervals. Drug treatments, administered prior to alcohol, were Amantadine at 4.41 mg Kg B.W., Doxapram at 2 mg Kg/B.W., and Maalox at 44 mg Kg/B.W. The alcohol treatment was .99 gm alcohol Kg/B.W. After alcohol administration, blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) were obtained by breath sampling every 15 minutes, to determine the rate of alcohol absorption. Subjects performed a behavioral test battery when BAC's were .10% and .05% on the declining curve. The five-item battery consisted of a critical tracking task, a divided-attention task, a rate of information processing task, a body sway task and a hand steadiness task. The test battery was administered three times on each experimental day, the first battery prior to treatment, and the second and third testing when the BAC had dropped to .10% and .05% respectively. The absorption of alcohol was delayed by the drugs, but only Doxapram produced a delay of practical importance and statistical significance. All of the experimental tasks proved sensitive to the effect of alcohol. There was no evidence that the combination of the drugs with the alcohol produced a lesser degree of impairment on the experimental tasks than produced by alcohol alone. This study demonstrates that some drugs have the ability to delay alcohol absorption into the blood stream and thus produce lower blood alcohol concentrations. These lower BAC's would reduce the probabilities of accidents following alcohol consumption.

• Corporate Authors:

  Southern California Research Institute

  2033 Pontius Avenue
  Los Angeles, CA  United States  90025

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Moskowitz, H
  • Sharma, S
• Publication Date: 1981-3

Media Info

• Pagination: 50 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Absorption; Alcohols; Behavior; Blood; Blood alcohol levels; Countermeasures; Development; Driver performance; Drivers; Drugs; Ethanol; Inhibitors (Chemistry); Intoxication; Measurement; Measures of effectiveness; Nervous system; Personnel performance; Physiological aspects; Sampling
• Uncontrolled Terms: Central nervous system; Effectiveness
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00343619
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: DOT-HS-805-881 Final Rpt.
• Contract Numbers: DOT-HS-5-01245
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Oct 28 1982 12:00AM