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The effects of alcohol alone or in combination with other drugs on information processing, task performance and subjective responses
Author(s) -
Kerr J. S.,
Hindmarch I.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
human psychopharmacology: clinical and experimental
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.461
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1099-1077
pISSN - 0885-6222
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1077(199801)13:1<1::aid-hup939>3.0.co;2-0
Subject(s) - psychomotor learning , alcohol , cognition , nicotine , caffeine , effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance , psychology , sedative , task (project management) , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , medicine , developmental psychology , psychiatry , medical emergency , biology , biochemistry , management , economics
Abstract This paper reviews the effects of alcohol on human psychomotor performance and cognitive function. It concentrates particularly on effects on reaction time and on skills related to car driving. The effects of alcohol on performance are very variable at low doses (under 1 g per kg body weight). The variability is due to the different measures and methods employed by the researchers and to the large interindividual and interoccasional differences in the effects of alcohol. That is, alcohol affects different people in different ways and it affects the same person differently on separate occasions. Greater performance deficits are observed as the dose increases and as the tasks become more complex. Although results vary, both nicotine and caffeine appear to antagonize the detrimental effects of alcohol on performance. Many other drugs interact with alcohol, the most important of which are sedative agents that can combine synergistically with alcohol to produce profound psychomotor and cognitive impairment. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.