Access Type

Open Access Thesis

Date of Award

January 2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Department

Pharmaceutical Sciences

First Advisor

Randall Commissaris

Abstract

AIM 1: Alcohol-impaired driving continues to be a significant cause of car crash injuries and deaths. The blood alcohol concentration (BAC) cut-off level for drunk driving is 0.08% in Michigan, and is estimated that lowering this cut-off to 0.05%would save 500–800 lives every year in the US alone. We used a portable virtual reality (VR)-based driving simulator to demonstrate the effects of alcohol at BAC concentrations 0.02-0.08%, grouped into 0.01% increments, on driving performance, specifically Crash Avoidance Reaction Time (CART), i.e., the time (in msec) required to initiate a steering avoidance response. We found that BAC concentrations as low as 0.031-0.04% significantly increased CART. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that the BAC cut-off for drunk driving should be lowered to 0.05%, or even lower. AIM 2: Safe driving requires that a driver remain attentive and focused on the driving task. Ethanol impairs a person’s ability to ‘pay attention’, so it is possible that driving impairment from alcohol results from a loss of attention to the driving task. Therefore, on approximately half of the crash avoidance trials, a Warning Bell was used to increase the drivers’ attention. Treatment with 4 and 5 drinks generated BACs in the target range and significantly increased CART compared to placebo. Presentation of Warning Bell significantly reduced the effects of alcohol to increase CART relative to vehicle treatment. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that the effects of alcohol at BAC levels at or below 0.08% result at least in part from changes in attention to the driving task. AIM 3: It was predicted that the subjects who reported alcohol tolerance would show smaller impairments in driving for a given BAC when compared to subjects with a history of no or more limited exposure. To examine this effect, we used subject self-reported drinking history (NIAAA scale). Unfortunately, we were unable to recruit a sufficient number of ‘binge drinkers’ to serve as participants in our study, and the sample size was therefore inadequate to draw any meaningful conclusions regarding this question.

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