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Jul 20, 03, 8:54 pm
Nicotine improves pilot performance
Nobody wants a drunk at the controls of a plane, but a new study has found that nicotine and a drug used to fight Alzheimer's disease causes pilots to perform better in simulators than those with no drugs in their system.
Researchers at Stanford University and the Veterans Administration hospital in Palo Alto found that pilots who take nicotine or donepezil, prescribed to improve Alzheimer's patients' functioning, fly better than those in a control group. Senior research scientist Martin Mumenthaler analyzed results of previous trials done over a 10-year period on the effects of alcohol, nicotine and donepezil on pilots' skill in a flight simulator. Results appear in the July issue of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.
In the nicotine trials, pilots were given either nicotine gum or a placebo before flying in a simulator. Pilots in the donepezil trial took the drug or a placebo for 30 days between two simulator flights. The other pilots drank either four alcoholic drinks or four placebos. They took one test flight immediately after drinking, when their blood alcohol level was about .1 percent, and another eight hours after their last drink.
Pilots given nicotine or donepezil flew better than their respective control groups, especially on approach to landing. "Pilots are getting tired at that point, and landing requires a high amount of sustained attention," Mumenthaler said. "That's where the drug benefits them most."
Pilots who flew immediately after drinking, however, did much worse, and continued to do significantly worse than the control group even eight hours later.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/20/TR295032.DTL
Nobody wants a drunk at the controls of a plane, but a new study has found that nicotine and a drug used to fight Alzheimer's disease causes pilots to perform better in simulators than those with no drugs in their system.
Researchers at Stanford University and the Veterans Administration hospital in Palo Alto found that pilots who take nicotine or donepezil, prescribed to improve Alzheimer's patients' functioning, fly better than those in a control group. Senior research scientist Martin Mumenthaler analyzed results of previous trials done over a 10-year period on the effects of alcohol, nicotine and donepezil on pilots' skill in a flight simulator. Results appear in the July issue of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.
In the nicotine trials, pilots were given either nicotine gum or a placebo before flying in a simulator. Pilots in the donepezil trial took the drug or a placebo for 30 days between two simulator flights. The other pilots drank either four alcoholic drinks or four placebos. They took one test flight immediately after drinking, when their blood alcohol level was about .1 percent, and another eight hours after their last drink.
Pilots given nicotine or donepezil flew better than their respective control groups, especially on approach to landing. "Pilots are getting tired at that point, and landing requires a high amount of sustained attention," Mumenthaler said. "That's where the drug benefits them most."
Pilots who flew immediately after drinking, however, did much worse, and continued to do significantly worse than the control group even eight hours later.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/20/TR295032.DTL