Summary
Interaction of the main metabolites of diazepam and chlordiazepoxide with alcohol was measured in two subacute double-blind cross-over experiments on 40 healthy, young volunteers. The drugs were administered for two week periods. The variables measured were choice reaction time and accuracy, eye-hand co-ordination, divided attention, flicker fusion, proprioception and nystagmus. Chlordiazepoxide lactam, methyloxazepam and oxazepam significantly enchanced the alcohol-induced impairment of psychomotor skills, whereas N-desmethyldiazepam did so only exceptionally in certain subjects in the choice reaction test. It is concluded that diazepam-alcohol interaction on psychomotor skills is mainly due to the parent compound. No correlation between the serum level of the agents and the changes in performance were found.
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Palva, E.S., Linnoila, M. Effect of active metabolites of chlordiazepoxide and diazepam, alone or in combination with alcohol, on psychomotor skills related to driving. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 13, 345–350 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00644607
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00644607