Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T22:23:02.564Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Effect of Neuroleptics on Cognitive and Psychomotor Function

A Preliminary Study in Healthy Volunteers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

David J. King  and
Geraldine Henry
David J. King*
Affiliation:
Department of Therapeutics and Pharmacology, The Queen's University of Belfast, and Holywell Hospital, Antrim
Geraldine Henry
Affiliation:
Holywell Hospital, Antrim
*
∗Department of Therapeutics and Pharmacology, The Whitla Medical Building, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL, Northern Ireland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The effects of haloperidol (1 mg), benzhexol (5 mg), diazepam (10 mg) and caffeine (400 mg) on subjective and objective measures of cognitive and psychomotor function were compared with placebo in 20 healthy volunteers. While both diazepam and benzhexol were associated with highly significant impairments in subjective alertness, critical flicker fusion threshold and choice reaction time (CRT), haloperidol could not be distinguished from placebo in most tests but was actually associated with an apparent improvement in CRT (in males) and simple visual reaction time. The perceptual maze test detected impairment by benzhexol on processing speed but was not sensitive to any other drug effects. Multiple-dose studies are required to establish if there is a true activating effect of haloperidol using a test of sustained attention. No effect of Eysenck personality subtype or life events on baseline or drug response data was detected.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 160 , Issue 5 , May 1992 , pp. 647 - 653
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1992 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barrett, J. E. & DiMascio, A. (1966) Comparative effects on anxiety of the “minor tranquillizers” in “high” and “low” anxious student volunteers. Diseases of the Nervous System, 27, 483–486.Google Scholar
Bond, A. & Lader, M. (1974) The use of analogue scales in rating subjective feelings. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 47, 211–218.Google Scholar
Broadbent, D. E. (1984) Performance and its measurement. British Journal of Pharmacology, 18 (suppl. 1), 5S–9S.Google Scholar
Bruce, M. S. & Lader, M. H. (1986) Caffeine: clinical and experimental effects in humans. Human Psychopharmacology, 1, 63–82.Google Scholar
Conover, W. J. (1980) Practical Non-parametric Statistics, 2nd edn, pp. 299–300. London: Wiley & Son Ltd Google Scholar
DiMascio, A. & Barrett, J. E. (1965) Comparative effects of oxazepam in “high” and “low” anxious student volunteers. Psychosomatics, 6, 298–302.Google Scholar
DiMascio, A., Havens, L. L. & Klerman, G. L. (1963) The psychopharmacology of phenothiazeine compouns: a comparative study of the effects of chlorpromazine, promethazine, trifluoperazine and perphenazine in normal males. I Introduction, aims and methods. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 136, 15–28.Google Scholar
DiMascio, A., Havens, L. L., Klerman, G. L. (1963) The psychopharmacology of phenothiazine compounds: a comparative study of the effects of chlorpromazine, promethazine, trifluoperazine and perphenazine in normal males. II Results and discussion. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 136, 168–186.Google Scholar
Elithorn, A., Mornington, S. & Stavrou, A. (1982) Automated psychological testing: some principles and practice. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 17, 246–263.Google Scholar
Fagan, D., Swift, C. G. & Tiplady, B. (1988) Effects of caffeine on vigilance and other performance tests in normal subjects. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2, 19–25.Google Scholar
Ghoneim, M. M., Mewaldt, S. P. & Hinrichs, J. V. (1984) Dose-response analysis of the behavioral effects of diazepam: II Psychomotor performance, cognition and mood. Psychopharmacology, 82, 296–300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heninger, G., DiMascio, A. & Klerman, G. L. (1965) Personality factors in variability of response to phenothiazines. American Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 1091–1094.Google Scholar
Hindmarch, I. (1975) A 1,4-benzodiazepine, temazepam (K3917), its effect on some psychological parameters of sleep and behaviour. Arzneim-Forsch (Drug Research), 25, 1836–1839.Google Scholar
James, B. & James, N. McI. (1973) Low dosage haloperidol and induced anxiety in normal volunteers. New Zealand Medical Journal, 78, 210–212.Google Scholar
Janke, W. & Debus, G. (1972) Double-blind psychometric evaluation of pimozide and haloperidol versus placebo in emotionally labile volunteers under two different work load conditions. Pharmakopsychiatry, 1, 34–51.Google Scholar
King, D. J. (1990) The effect of neuroleptics on cognitive and psychomotor function. British Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 799–811.Google Scholar
Kornetsky, C. & Humphries, O. (1957) Relationship between effects of a number of centrally acting drugs and personality. AMA Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 77, 325–327.Google Scholar
Kornetsky, C. & Orzack, M. H. (1964) A research note on some of the critical factors on the dissimilar effects of chlorpromazine and secobarbital on the digit symbol substitution and continuous performance tests. Psychopharmacologia, 6, 79–86.Google Scholar
Linnoila, M., Erwin, C. W., Brendle, A., et al (1983) Psychomotor effects of diazepam in anxious patients and healthy volunteers. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 3, 88–96.Google Scholar
Loke, W. H. & Melbka, C. J. (1984) Effects of caffeine use and ingestion on a protracted visual vigilance task. Psychopharmacology, 84, 54–57.Google Scholar
Magliozzi, J. R., Mungas, D., Laubly, J. N., et al (1989) Effect of haloperidol on a symbol digit substitution task in normal adult males. Neuropsychopharmacology, 2, 29–37.Google Scholar
McClelland, G. R., Cooper, S. M. & Raptopoulos, P. (1987) Paroxetine and haloperidol: effects on psychomotor performance. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 24, 268P–269P.Google Scholar
McClelland, G. R., Cooper, S. M. & Pilgrim, A. J. (1990) A comparison of the central nervous system effects of haloperidol, chlorpromazine and sulpiride in normal volunteers. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 30, 795–803.Google Scholar
McDonald, R. L. (1967) The effects of personality type on drug response. Archives of General Psychiatry, 17, 680–686.Google Scholar
Medalia, A., Gold, J. & Merriam, A. (1988) The effect of neuroleptics on neuropsychological test results of schizophrenics. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 3, 249–271.Google Scholar
Mirsky, A. F., Primac, D. W. & Bates, R. (1959) The effects of chlorpromazine and secobarbital on the continuous performance test. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 128, 12–17.Google Scholar
Mirsky, A. F. & Kornetsky, C. (1964) On the dissimilar effects of drugs on the digit symbol substitution and continuous performance tests. A review and preliminary integration of behavioural and physiological evidence. Psychopharmacologia, 5, 161–177.Google Scholar
Nakano, S., Ogawa, N., Kawazu, Y., et al (1978) Effects of antianxiety drug and personality on stress-inducing psychomotor performance test. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 18, 125–130.Google Scholar
Norris, H. (1971) The action of sedatives on brain stem oculomotor systems in man. Neuropharmacology, 10, 181–191.Google Scholar
Nybäck, H., Blomqvist, G., Greitz, T., et al (1985) Brain metabolism and neuropsychological test performance in healthy volunteers and patients with Alzheimer's dementia. IVth World Congress of Biological Psychiatry, Philadelphia, Abstract No. 419.6.Google Scholar
Parrott, A. C. & Hindmarch, I. (1975) Haloperidol and chlorpromazine – comparative effects upon arousal and performance. IRCS Medical Science, 3, 562.Google Scholar
Potamianos, G. & Kellett, J. M. (1982) Anticholinergic drugs and memory: the effects of benzhexol on memory in a group of geriatric patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 470–472.Google Scholar
Preston, G. C., Brazell, C., Ward, C., et al (1988) The scopolamine model of dementia: determination of central cholinomimetic effects of physostigmine on cognition and biochemical markers in man. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2, 67–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saarialho-Kere, U. (1988) Psychomotor, respiratory and neuroendocrinological effects of nalbuphine and haloperidol, alone and in combination, in health subjects. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 26, 79–87.Google Scholar
Saletu, B., Grünberger, J., Linzmayer, L., et al (1983) Determination of pharmacodynamics of the new neuroleptic zetidoline by neuroendocrinologic, pharmaco-EEG, and psychometric studies – Part I. International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, Therapy and Toxicology, 21, 489–495.Google Scholar
Saletu, B., Grünberger, J., Linzmayer, L., et al (1983) Determination of pharmacodynamics of the new neuroleptic zetidoline by neuroendocrinologic, pharmaco-EEG, and psychometric studies – Part II. International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, Therapy and Toxicology, 21, 544–551.Google Scholar
Smith, J., Jones, D. & Elithorn, A. (1978) The Perceptual Maze Test. London: Medical Research Council.Google Scholar
Zwyghuizen-Doorenbos, A., Roehrs, T. A., Lipschultz, L., et al (1990) Effects of caffeine on alertness. Psychopharmacology, 100, 36–39.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.