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[Effect of drugs on human discrimination ability]
Psychiatrie, Neurologie, Und Medizinische Psychologie
|August 1, 1984
Summary
Certain drugs like phenobarbital, thioridazine, and diazepam impair cognitive function, with effects varying by dosage. Caffeine, however, can improve performance, depending on dose and time. These findings highlight the utility of deletion tests in psychopharmacology.
Area of Science:
- Psychopharmacology
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Detail discrimination ability is crucial for cognitive function.
- Various central nervous system (CNS) acting drugs can affect cognitive performance.
- Objective assessment of drug-induced cognitive changes is vital for clinical and research applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the effects of several CNS drugs and caffeine on detail discrimination in healthy subjects.
- To evaluate the efficacy of the d2-test and Bourdon-Wiersma test in detecting drug-induced performance changes.
Main Methods:
- Healthy subjects were administered phenobarbital, nitrazepam, diazepam, medazepam, chlordiazepoxide, phenytoin, carbamazepine, thioridazine, caffeine, or placebo.
- Detail discrimination ability was assessed using the d2-test and the Bourdon-Wiersma test.
Main Results:
- Phenobarbital, thioridazine, and diazepam induced dose-dependent impairments in performance.
- Caffeine demonstrated a dose- and time-dependent improvement in performance.
- Both the d2-test and Bourdon-Wiersma test produced consistent results, indicating their sensitivity to drug effects.
Conclusions:
- The d2-test and Bourdon-Wiersma test are suitable tools for detecting drug effects on detail discrimination.
- These tests are valuable for clinicopharmacological and clinicopsychopharmacological studies.
- Drug-induced cognitive impairments and improvements can be objectively quantified using these psychometric tests.