New Methodologies for Assessing Effects of Pharmaceutical Compounds on Military Performance.

摘要

As a member of the tri-service Joint Working Group on Drug Degradation of Military Performance (JWGD3 MILPERF), the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory (NAMRL) has developed a Multidisciplinary Performance Assessment Test Battery (NMPTB). The NMPTB has been designed for assessing aviator performance from a five discipline perspective, (i.e., cognitive, vestibular, visual, auditory, physiological). The present experiment represents one in a series of test development, standardization, and validation studies being conducted at NAMRL. Through joint-services collaboration with NMRI, WRAIR, USAFSAM, and AAMRL, we compared the effects of two antihistamines. The primary aim was to test the sensitivity of a subset of the JWGD3 MILPERF/NMPTB performance assessment metrics to the effects of a central and reportedly non-central acting compound. Twelve Marine Corps student pilots received oral doses of diphenhydramine (Benadryl, 100mg), terenadine (Seldane, 60mg) and placebo my mouth on each of 3 experminetal days. A double-blind, repeated-measures design was implemented. Results from the cognitive and vestibular subsets of the NMPTB are reported. Keywords: Reprints. (js)