Effects of Antianxiety Drug and Personality on Stress‐Inducing Psychomotor Performance Test

Abstract

The present study was carried out to clarify the effects of an antianxiety drug and of personality characteristics on a psychomotor performance test. Forty-eight healthy women college students were chosen from 64 volunteers as having either high or low levels of trait anxiety, neuroticism, or extroversion. Subjects with high trait anxiety and/or neuroticism tended to show a decrease in both speed and accuracy of the mirror drawing test (MDT) in the initial nondrug trials. Bromazepam, 5 mg, a benzodiazepine derivative, decreased this decrement in highly anxious subjects but worsened the speed in less anxious subjects. The personality traits of subjects, as well as the degree to which a performance test will induce stress, must be considered when evaluating the effects of antianxiety drugs on the performance of normal volunteers. The clinical anxiety-reducing efficacy of drugs may be predicted by using the MDT in subjects with high levels of anxiety and/or neuroticism.

A Comparison of Assessment Techniques Measuring the Effects of Methylphenidate, Secobarbital, Diazepam and Diphenhydramine in Abstinent Alcoholics

“…The positive correlations of neuroticism scores on the EPI with diazepam effect are consistent with Nakano et al [1978], who reported that bromazepam improved performance in subjects with high neuroticism scores while worsening that of less anxious individuals. Breier et al [1979] reported a positive correlation between extraversión and response to ACTH 4-10, a heptapeptide reported to increase alertness and attention in hu mans [Miller et al, 1974].…”

High levels of impulsivity may contraindicate midazolam premedication in children

“…These results are consistent with previous findings that responses to benzodiazepines are highly dependent on participants' trait anxiety levels. 12 One of the particular aims of this study was to find out what type of children would benefit most from the use of midazolam in terms of parent-rated child temperament variables. It was hypothesized that trait emotionality, as measured on the EASI, might be a good predictor of how children would react in a stressful, preoperative situation when administered a placebo, and that trait emotionality might predict which children would benefit most from midazolam administration.…”

“…We also predicted that children with higher predrug baseline levels of observer-rated anxiety would benefit more from midazolam's anxiolytic effects than would children with lower pre-drug baseline levels of observer-rated anxiety. 12 Since state anxiety and trait emotionality scores tend to be highly correlated, 13 we also hypothesized that children with higher trait emotionality, as measured by the Emotionality, Activity, Sociability, and Impulsivity (EASI), would benefit more from midazolam's anxiolytic effects than would children with lower trait emotionality, and that lower levels of both Activity and Impulsivity would be related to higher m-YPAS scores at mask induction in the placebo group.…”

Anxiolytic Effects of Diazepam and Trait-State Conception of Anxie

“…In the studies using a mirror drawing test with an error signal as performance test, sub jects with high trait anxiety showed decrement of performance, especially in the early stage of learning, while the antianxiety drugs diazepam or bromazepam, 5 mg, lessened this decrement (Nakano, S., Ogawa, N., Kawazu, Y. et al, 1978 ;Nakano, S., Gillespie, H. K. and Hollister, L. E., 1978 ; According to our experience, the ideal situation would be the choice of subjects with high levels of trait anxiety who are subjected to a task known to evoke high levels of state anxiety (Nakano, S., Ogawa, N., Kawazu, Y. et al, 1978 ; Nakano, S., Gillespie, H. K. and .…”