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Benzodiazepines and vigilance performance: a review.

H S Koelega1

  • 1Psychological Laboratory, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Psychopharmacology
|January 1, 1989
PubMed
Summary

Vigilance tasks effectively detect benzodiazepine impairment in healthy individuals, even at low doses. However, these adverse effects are typically not observed in patients already using these drugs.

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Area of Science:

  • Pharmacopsychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology

Background:

  • The effects of anxiolytic and hypnotic drugs on sustained attention are not well understood.
  • Benzodiazepines are commonly prescribed, necessitating clear understanding of their performance-related side effects.
  • Vigilance tasks may offer a more ecologically valid method for assessing drug-induced performance deficits.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the utility of vigilance tasks in assessing the adverse effects of benzodiazepines.
  • To determine if vigilance tasks can differentiate between benzodiazepines based on residual activity.
  • To investigate the impact of benzodiazepines on performance in different populations (healthy volunteers vs. patients).

Main Methods:

  • Systematic review and detailed examination of 26 studies from an initial pool of 37.
  • Focus on studies utilizing vigilance tasks to assess drug effects.
  • Comparison of findings in young, healthy volunteers versus patients using benzodiazepines.

Main Results:

  • Vigilance tasks are sensitive to the impairing effects of benzodiazepines in healthy volunteers, often in a dose-dependent manner.
  • Both accuracy and speed of performance were affected in healthy subjects.
  • Adverse effects on performance were generally not found in patients currently using benzodiazepines.
  • Benzodiazepines impacted perceptual sensitivity but had less effect on response criteria.
  • No clear interaction was found between anxiety, sleep quality, and drug effects on performance.

Conclusions:

  • Vigilance tasks are valuable tools for assessing benzodiazepine-induced performance impairments in healthy individuals.
  • The clinical relevance of these findings for patients using benzodiazepines requires further investigation.
  • The mechanisms underlying vigilance impairment, beyond global sedation, warrant further study.

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