title: Alcohol calibration of tests measuring skills related to car driving.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medication and illicit drugs can have detrimental side effects which impair driving performance. A drug's impairing potential should be determined by well-validated, reliable, and sensitive tests and ideally be calibrated by benchmark drugs and doses. To date, no consensus has been reached on the issue of which psychometric tests are best suited for initial screening of a drug's driving impairment potential.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this alcohol calibration study is to determine which performance tests are useful to measure drug-induced impairment. The effects of alcohol are used to compare the psychometric quality between tests and as benchmark to quantify performance changes in each test associated with potentially impairing drug effects.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-four healthy volunteers participated in a double-blind, four-way crossover study. Treatments were placebo and three different doses of alcohol leading to blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) of 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8 g/L.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Main effects of alcohol were found in most tests. Compared with placebo, performance in the Divided Attention Test (DAT) was significantly impaired after all alcohol doses and performance in the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) and the Balance Test was impaired with a BAC of 0.5 and 0.8 g/L. The largest effect sizes were found on postural balance with eyes open and mean reaction time in the divided attention and the psychomotor vigilance test.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The preferable tests for initial screening are the DAT and the PVT, as these tests were most sensitive to the impairing effects of alcohol and being considerably valid in assessing potential driving impairment.
authors.affiliation: Experimental Psychopharmacology Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, stefan.jongen@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jongen
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vuurman
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ramaekers
authors.forename: Annemiek
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vermeeren
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D001334:Automobile Driving; D002138:Calibration; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011187:Posture; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects*; D014785:Vision, Ocular; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol