Centre for Mental Health and Brain Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC, Australia.
Institute for Breathing and Sleep, Austin Health, Heidelberg, VIC, Australia.
J Psychopharmacol. 2024 Nov;38(11):998-1006. doi: 10.1177/02698811241286715. Epub 2024 Oct 11.
Methylphenidate is a routinely prescribed treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder with misuse potential owing to its perceived performance-enhancing and euphoric properties. Although clinically effective, there is limited understanding of how methylphenidate affects safety-sensitive tasks such as driving when used by healthy individuals.
Explore the acute effects of 10 mg methylphenidate on driving performance and gaze behaviour.
Twenty-five fully licensed, healthy adults (mean age = 33.5 ± 7.8 years, 64% male) took part in two 40-min simulated highway drives with simultaneous eye movements monitored using a proprietary automotive-grade driver monitoring system (Seeing Machines). Driving performance was assessed using the standard deviation of lateral position, standard deviation of speed and steering variability. Visual scanning efficiency was determined using ocular metrics, such as fixation duration and rate, gaze transition entropy, and stationary gaze entropy, were assessed to determine visual scanning efficiency.
Methylphenidate significantly improved driving performance by reducing lane weaving and speed variation, particularly in the latter half of the drive. Although a significant reduction in fixation duration was observed, all other ocular metrics remained unchanged.
Methylphenidate mitigates performance decrements typically associated with prolonged and monotonous driving. The absence of pronounced oculomotor effects suggests that a single 10 mg dose of methylphenidate has no deleterious impact on visual scanning behaviour during driving tasks with low-to-moderate cognitive demand. Future research should investigate the effects of methylphenidate under various dosing and driving conditions to better understand its impact.
ACTRN12620000499987.
哌醋甲酯是一种常用于治疗注意力缺陷多动障碍的药物，由于其被认为具有提高表现和令人愉悦的特性，因此存在潜在的滥用风险。尽管哌醋甲酯在临床上有效，但对于健康个体使用时如何影响安全敏感任务，例如驾驶，人们的了解有限。
探讨 10mg 哌醋甲酯对驾驶表现和注视行为的急性影响。
25 名完全持照、健康的成年人（平均年龄=33.5±7.8 岁，64%为男性）参与了两次 40 分钟的模拟高速公路驾驶，同时使用专有汽车级驾驶员监控系统（Seeing Machines）监测眼动。使用横向位置标准差、速度标准差和转向变异性评估驾驶性能。使用眼动指标，如注视持续时间和速率、注视转移熵和静止注视熵，来评估视觉扫描效率。
哌醋甲酯通过减少车道偏离和速度变化显著改善了驾驶表现，尤其是在驾驶后半段。虽然注视持续时间显著缩短，但其他所有眼动指标均保持不变。
哌醋甲酯减轻了与长时间单调驾驶相关的表现下降。注视行为无明显变化表明，单次 10mg 剂量的哌醋甲酯对低至中等认知需求的驾驶任务中的视觉扫描行为没有不利影响。未来的研究应在各种剂量和驾驶条件下研究哌醋甲酯的效果，以更好地了解其影响。
ACTRN12620000499987。
