A double-blind, placebo controlled, cross-over study was carried out in 10 normal healthy volunteers to investigate the effects of sertraline 25 mg, 50 mg, 75 mg and 100 mg on aspects of cognitive functioning. Changes with respect to placebo in objective tests of psychomotor function (critical flicker fusion and choice reaction time) showed that sertraline had an alerting effect. The changes were not consistent with subjective reports of drowsiness.

Twelve healthy female volunteers received acute doses of terfenadine, 60 mg, 120 mg, 240 mg or placebo, followed by a 'social' dose of alcohol equivalent to 0.5 g absolute alcohol/kg body weight. Performance was assessed on laboratory analogues of car driving both before and after alcohol administration. Terfenadine (240 mg) was found to significantly impair performance alone and following alcohol. The results demonstrate the importance of establishing the behavioural effects of drugs over a range of doses.

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Nine male and nine female subjects received one of four doses of alcohol (0.25,0.5, 0.75 or 1 g per kg of bodyweight for male subjects: females received 92% of these values) or placebo. Similar blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) for males and females were reached. Subjects were then tested on two batteries of psychological tests related to skills involved in driving. These included psychomotor, cognitive and subjective assessment tasks. The results showed a linear increase in the disruption of performance with dose for many of the tests, particularly those involving psychomotor function. In addition it was demonstrated that on certain tasks males were affected more by alcohol than females. It is concluded that moderate doses of alcohol (resulting in BACs of 0.05 to 0.08 g/100ml)can produce significant deficits in perceptual and motor skills related to driving a vehicle.