Drugs, Driving and Traffic Safety

Overview.- Worldwide trends.- Models to measure driving impairment.- Measurement & methods to determine driving ability.- Simulator studies.- The on-the-road driving test.- Culpability studies.- Case-control studies.- Guidelines for medicinal drugs.- Relationship between drug use traffic accident severity.- Pharmacokinetics & Pharmacodynamics of drugs.- Driver sleepiness and countermeasures.- Insomnia & hypnotic drugs.- Sleep apnea.- Shift workers.- Anxiolytics.- Antidepressants.- ADHD.- Parkinson s disease.- Multiple sclerosis.- Acute & chronic pain.- Allergic rhinitis.- Diabetes mellitus.- Changes & predictors, 1992 2005.- Reducing illegal blood alcohol limits for driving.- Interventions to reduce impaired driving.- The alcohol ignition interlock.- Cannabis.- Ecstasy.- ICADTS drug listing.

"This is a substantial volume with 59 contributors providing 30 chapters and 2 appendices. The various chapters cover the gamut of topics and issues related to drugs, driving and traffic safety and the editors are to be congratulated on recruiting an internationally diverse group of well-recognised authorities in the subject matter of the various fields of interest covered.'Drugs and Driving' is arguably one of the broadest canvasses within Psychopharmacology but, by and large, these individual chapters do coalesce to give an integrated expert commentary.Basically there are three topic areas, though the book is in no way divided as such. The first contains contributions on aspects of health, epidemiology and traffic safety; the role of drugs and/or sleepiness as causal agents in traffic accidents; methods and measures for assessing car driving ability.The second area examines the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic properties of drugs; the effects of alcohol, cannabis, Ecstasy, hypnotics, anxiolytics and antidepressants on measures of driving ability and the relationship between drugs, driving and traffic safety in shift-workers,Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), sleep apnoea, pain, allergic rhinitis and diabetes mellitus.Finally, there are papers discussing predictors of accidents and patterns of drug-involved traffic accidents and countermeasures and ways of reducing/preventing impaired drivers taking the wheel ...this excellent book will provide insight for those measuring, treating, regulating and researching the effects of psychoactive drugs on car driving ability and accident liability." Ian Hindmarch - Hum. Psychopharmacol Clin Exp 2010; 25: 191