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Effects of repeated dosing with mirtazapine, trazodone, or placebo on driving performance and cognitive function in healthy volunteers
Author(s) -
Sasada Kazumi,
Iwamoto Kunihiro,
Kawano Naoko,
Kohmura Kunihiro,
Yamamoto Maeri,
Aleksic Branko,
Ebe Kazutoshi,
Noda Yukihiro,
Ozaki Norio
Publication year - 2013
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/hup.2321
Subject(s) - trazodone , mirtazapine , placebo , sedative , anesthesia , psychology , crossover study , medicine , flicker fusion threshold , psychiatry , antidepressant , anxiety , alternative medicine , engineering , pathology , electrical engineering , flicker
Objective This study aimed to evaluate the effects of repeated treatments with the sedative antidepressants mirtazapine and trazodone on driving performance and cognitive function. Methods Nineteen healthy men received continuous nocturnal doses of 15‐mg mirtazapine , 25‐mg trazodone, or placebo for 8 days in a double‐blinded, three‐way crossover trial. Subjects were asked to perform three driving tasks (road tracking, car following, and harsh braking) using a driving simulator and cognitive tasks (the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Continuous Performance Test, and N‐back Test) at baseline and on Days 2 and 9. Stanford Sleepiness Scale scores were also assessed. Results Mirtazapine significantly increased the standard deviation of lateral position in the road‐tracking task as compared with trazodone on Day 2. Mirtazapine significantly increased Stanford Sleepiness Scale scores as compared with trazodone and placebo. For the remaining tasks, no significant effects of treatment were observed. Conclusions Acute treatment of mirtazapine impaired road‐tracking performance and increased sleepiness, but sedative effects disappeared under repeated administrations. Trazodone did not affect driving performance or cognitive function under acute or repeated administrations. Both initial sedative effects and pharmacological profiles should be taken into consideration when using sedative antidepressants. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.