A Pharmacological Profile of Fluoxetine and Other Antidepressants on Aspects of Skilled Performance and Car Handling Ability

Abstract

The measurement of the effects of an antidepressant on psychomotor ability and cognitive processing tests is important for three reasons. Firstly, because a change in psychomotor and cognitive function is one of the truly objective assessments of psychotropic activity of a drug. Secondly, since batteries of psychological tests are often analogues of the essential aspects of real-life behaviour, performance changes can reflect the potential impairment of the activities of everyday living such as car driving, operating industrial machinery, and domestic tasks. Thirdly, since Widlocher (1983a,b) has proposed that mental and psychomotor retardation are a primary expression of depressive illness, psychomotor and cognitive tests can be used to measure the extent to which a putative antidepressant affects these psychological functions. Psychopharmacological testing can thus indicate the ‘safety’ of the drug in clinical usage by establishing an index of the behavioural ‘toxicity’ of the substance. It can also objectively determine the magnitude of the drug's psychoactive properties, and the extent to which a particular compound affects information processing and cognitive function. Substances which have a negative action on these aspects of psychological integrity could be regarded as counter-therapeutic, as they are making psychomotor and mental functions worse.