Biomedical subjects

D Brendemühl

Publications and source records attributed to D Brendemühl.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1991

Piracetam in elderly motorists.

101 elderly motorists with reduced reaction capacity were examined under real traffic conditions with regard to their driving ability. They were given a daily dose of 4.8 g piracetam or placebo over a six-week period in a randomised double-blind study. The percentage of correctly solved sign-observance items, which reflects orientation and perception in real traffic conditions, increased in the placebo-treated test-group from 79.86% in the pretest to 80.07% in the retest, whereas the test subjects of the piracetam-treated group improved their performance from 77.08% to 84.16%. After being treated with piracetam for 6 weeks, the drivers showed a significantly better performance than the placebo-group. Of particular interest is the finding that the test-subjects who had scored less than 80% in the pretest improved without exception in the retest after treatment with piracetam.

Aged↗

PubMed1986

Aspects of driving after hypnotic therapy with particular reference to temazepam.

In a double-blind study, 32 outpatients with sleep disorders received oral doses of temazepam 20 mg (n = 16) or flunitrazepam 2 mg (n = 16) once a night for 7 days. On the morning after the first and seventh doses, patients completed psychomotor tests and a real driving test on the road over a 25 km course. The road test included a 1 km straight stretch driven at constant speed. In the car, various parameters were automatically recorded every second for approximately 60 minutes. These included angular velocity of steering, lateral acceleration and velocity. An optimization quotient, a measure of the efficiency of information processing in the driver-vehicle-road interaction, was derived from these parameters. An observer recorded driving performance by scoring standardized tasks. After a single dose of temazepam, the improvement in driver performance as shown by a decreased optimization quotient was significantly different to the deterioration seen after flunitrazepam (p less than 0.05). After the seventh dose, this trend was still apparent but was not statistically significant. After both one and seven doses, the angular velocity of steering was significantly decreased in the temazepam group compared with an increase after flunitrazepam (p less than 0.001). Over the straight, this deterioration in steering ability in the flunitrazepam group was apparent after one dose and reached statistical significance compared with temazepam after seven doses (p less than 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Anti-Anxiety Agents↗

PubMed1985

[Adverse medical aspects of hypnotic therapy with temazepam].

In a double blind comparison the driving ability of 32 outpatients with disomnia was investigated in psychometrical tests and standardized trial runs in road traffic every morning after a single dose and after a 7-day therapy with 20 mg temazepam compared with 2 mg flunitrazepam. As well as standardized driving performance observation a test car was fitted with a drive-recorder which synchronically recorded and digitally registered at 1 s intervals during a 60 min run the speed, the steering wheel velocity, fore-hand-aft and lateral acceleration amongst other data. The individual optimal quotient, as a measure of the degree of efficiency of the information processed in the driver-vehicle-road system, deteriorated significantly after the single dose of flunitrazepam as opposed to temazepam. In a trial run on a well defined test course under strictly standardized conditions, the steering wheel velocity, signifying the quality of steering ability, was highly significantly increased after the single dose as well as after the 7-day treatment with flunitrazepam therefore showing a distinct deterioration of steering ability compared to the temazepam group. The number of errors in technical handling was significantly highly with flunitrazepam at both control time checks than with temazepam.

Adult↗

PubMed1980

[Driving behavior of cardiovascular patients as affected by beta receptor blockers].

18 male patients under betablocker therapy adapted to their individual stage of hypersympathicotonic circulatory regulation disturbances were tested in a motor-vehicle simulator to find out possible changes of their driving ability. Besides observing driving-style and reactions, the following parameters were controlled: blood pressure, time of pulse waves, heart rate. Speeds of deviation angles (= deviation from straight line per time unit) decreased significantly. No differences between tests under betablocker medication and without it could be demonstrated, neither in simple-reaction times nor in the more complex multiple-reaction times, which can be compared with realistic traffic situations. Blood pressure and heart rate showed more significant decreases after medication than in tests without previous betablocker treatment. The results prove that the betablocking agent Bupranolol does not influence the ability of car-driving, not even in case of semichronical application.

Attention↗