The effects of haloperidol on visual search, eye movements and psychomotor performance

The effects of single doses of haloperidol (2, 4 and 6 mg) were compared with lorazepam 2.5 mg and placebo in 15 healthy subjects. Visual search strategy was measured, along with a range of psychomotor and eye movement tests. Patients with Parkinson's disease have been shown to exhibit a shift...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychopharmacologia 1997-10, Vol.133 (3), p.233-239
Main Authors: LYNCH, G, KING, D. J, GREEN, J. F, BYTH, W, WILSON-DAVIS, K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Attention - drug effects
Biological and medical sciences
Cross-Over Studies
Dopamine Antagonists - adverse effects
Dopamine Antagonists - pharmacology
Drug toxicity and drugs side effects treatment
Eye Movements - drug effects
GABA Modulators - pharmacology
Haloperidol
Haloperidol - adverse effects
Haloperidol - pharmacology
Humans
Information processing
Latency
Lorazepam
Lorazepam - pharmacology
Male
Medical sciences
Neurodegenerative diseases
Parkinson's disease
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Psychomotor Performance - drug effects
Pursuit, Smooth - drug effects
Saccades - drug effects
Saccadic eye movements
Smooth pursuit eye movements
Statistical analysis
Toxicity: eye
Velocity
Visual perception
Visual Perception - drug effects
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Description
Summary:The effects of single doses of haloperidol (2, 4 and 6 mg) were compared with lorazepam 2.5 mg and placebo in 15 healthy subjects. Visual search strategy was measured, along with a range of psychomotor and eye movement tests. Patients with Parkinson's disease have been shown to exhibit a shift from parallel to serial processing in visual search, but we demonstrated that this does not occur following administration of either haloperidol or lorazepam. Haloperidol was detected by visual analogue rating scales and peak saccadic velocity, the latter being the more sensitive measure. Haloperidol had no statistically significant effect on smooth pursuit position error, velocity error or saccadic intrusions. Digit symbol substitution performance was clearly diminished by haloperidol, but there was no effect on the continuous attention test. Lorazepam decreased performance in all tests apart from saccadic latency.
ISSN:0033-3158
1432-2072
DOI:10.1007/s002130050396