Herbert Moskowitz

The Long Beach/Fort Lauderdale relative risk study.

PROBLEM The role of alcohol as a major factor in traffic crash causation has been firmly established. However, controversy remains as to the precise shape of the relative risk function and the BAC at which crash risk begins to increase. METHODS This study used a case-control design in two locations: Long Beach, California, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Data were collected on 2,871 crashes of all severities and a matched control group of drivers selected from the same time, location, and direction of travel as the crash drivers. Of the 14,985 sample drivers, 81.3% of the crash drivers and 97.9% of the controls provided a valid BAC specimen. RESULTS When adjusted for covariates and nonparticipation bias, increases in relative risk were observed at BACs of .04-.05, and the elevations in risk became very pronounced when BACs exceeded .10. DISCUSSION The results provide strong support for .08 per se laws and for state policies that increase sanctions for BACs in excess of .15. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY This study provides further precision on the deleterious effects of alcohol on driving and, by implication, on other complex tasks.

EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON PERIPHERAL VISION AS A FUNCTION OF ATTENTION

Twelve males were tested under a control and two alcohol treatments in a perimeter apparatus used for testing peripheral vision. They were required to fixate either on a steady-state central fixation light and detect peripheral lights, or to count blinks produced by the cessations of the fixation light and to detect peripheral lights. Alcohol produced an impairment of peripheral vision only under conditions where the central fixation light blinked and thus required information processing. No performance decrement occurred when the central light did not blink. The results suggest that alcohol interferes with central information processing rather than peripheral sensory mechanisms.

Effects of long-term administration of buspirone and diazepam on driver steering control

The effects of buspirone, diazepam, and placebo on tracking control were investigated over a nine-day period, using three groups of subjects, each with eight females and eight males. Subjects were tested using an interactive, computer-based driving simulator on days one, eight, and nine of the treatment period. On day nine, subjects received alcohol with their drug treatment. Measures of steering control were derived from car-driver transfer functions. Tracking performance was also measured. Diazepam was found to adversely affect steering control measures in comparison with placebo. This was true both after doses on the first as well as the eighth day of treatment. Thus, there was no evidence of behavioral tolerance to diazepam. In contrast, buspirone was not found to have any adverse effects on steering control; in fact, some evidence of improved tracking control was found. When alcohol was added to each treatment on the ninth day, differences between the drug treatment groups were less pronounced but in the same direction as on the first and eighth days.

Effects of diphenhydramine and alcohol on skills performance

SummaryTwelve men were subjects in a repeated measures experiment on the effects on performance of diphenhydramine, alcohol, and diphenhydramine and alcohol in combination. Behavioral measures included compensatory tracking, a divided attention task, information processing rate, and critical tracking. Performance impairment occurred under all treatments with an additive effect under the combined drug-alcohol treatment.

The effects on performance of two antidepressants, alone and in combination with diazepam

1. Ninety healthy adult men participated in a study of the effects on performance of 60 mg fluoxetine, 50 mg amitriptyline or placebo, alone and in combination with 5 mg diazepam or placebo. 2. In a 2X3 factorial design study, groups of 15 Ss received one of six possible treatment combinations. 3. Ss were tested with a battery of laboratory tests at two post-dosing times. 4. Amitriptyline impaired the performance of all tasks. When diazepam was added to the amitriptyline treatment, the impairment of three tasks increased. Diazepam alone produced impairment on two measures. 5. Fluoxetine alone impaired no task; some impairment occurred with the fluoxetine-diazepam combination.

Marihuana: effects on simulated driving performance†☆

Abstract Performance of 23 male subjects was tested under smoked marihuana treatments on 4 occasions in a complex driving simulator. Doses were 0, 50, 100 and 200 micrograms delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol per kilogram bodyweight. The simulator uses a car mounted on a chassis dynamometer facing a filmed scene subtending 160 degrees. Twenty-five performance measures are derived based on steering wheel, brake and accelerator pad usage as well as speed and tracking. The simulator also incorporates a visual search-and-recognition task based on random appearance of lights in the periphery. There is little evidence for a significant effect of marihuana upon car control and tracking. None of the 25 car control-tracking scores was significantly changed in either mean or variance by the treatments. However, there was a clear, statistically significant decrement in performance of the search-and-recognition task. Marihuana produced increased errors in recognition of the lights and delayed response times to their appearance. The results suggest the prime locus of marihuana impairment of driving performance as being in the interference with perceptual processes involved in data acquisition necessary for safe control of the vehicle.

Cognitive Performance in Geriatric Subjects after Acute Treatment with Antidepressants

The effects of amitriptyline, trazodone and placebo on cognitive skills performance were examined in a group of 15 normal volunteers with a minimum age of 60. Each subject was behaviorally tested after single, acute treatments at weekly sessions using a battery of tasks measuring visual search, division of attention, tracking, critical tracking, rate of information processing, and vigilance. Amitriptyline, 50 mg, produced impairment on the vigilance task, the divided attention task and the critical tracking task. In addition, episodes of extended insensitivity to external stimuli similar to short-term sleep occurred. In contrast, trazodone exhibited impairment only on the critical tracking task. This study indicates that trazodone is less likely than amitriptyline to produce impairment of skills performance aspects of cognition.

Police officers' detection of breath odors from alcohol ingestion

Police officers frequently use the presence or absence of an alcohol breath odor for decisions on proceeding further into sobriety testing. Epidemiological studies report many false negative errors. The current study employed 20 experienced officers as observers to detect an alcohol odor from 14 subjects who were at blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) ranging from zero to 0.130 g/dl. Over a 4 h period, each officer had 24 opportunities to place his nose at the terminal end of a 6 in. tube through which subjects blew. Subjects were hidden behind screens with a slit for the tube to prevent any but odor cues. Under these optimum conditions, odor was detected only two-thirds of the time for BACs below 0.08 and 85% of the time for BACs at or above 0.08%. After food consumption, correct detections declined further. Officers were unable to recognize whether the alcohol beverage was beer, wine, bourbon or vodka. Odor strength estimates were unrelated to BAC levels. Estimates of BAC level failed to rise above random guesses. These results demonstrate that even under optimum laboratory conditions, breath odor detection is unreliable, which may account for the low detection rate found in roadside realistic conditions.

Effect of Marihuana on the Psychological Refractory Period

Reaction times to an auditory stimulus (RT1) and a subsequent visual stimulus (RT2) were measured for 12 Ss under three levels of smoked marihuana. Marihuana impaired responses; effect was larger on RT2 than on RT1. However, delays of RT2 are longer than would be predicted in terms of the psychological refractory period.

Effect of alcohol on the visual autokinetic phenomenon

The effect of a 0.69 gm. alcohol/kg. body weight dose was compared with a control treatment upon visual autokinesis using 12 Ss. No alcohol effect was found on an objective measure of the apparent distance moved by the fixation light.