Interactions between alcohol and caffeine in relation to psychomotor speed and accuracy

Mackay, Michelle, Tiplady, Brian and Scholey, Andrew (2002) Interactions between alcohol and caffeine in relation to psychomotor speed and accuracy. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical & Experimental, 17 (3). pp. 151-156. ISSN 0885-6222

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Abstract

Unlike other CNS depressants, alcohol intoxication can be associated with increased error rates, coupled with unaffected (or speeded) response rates during psychomotor and cognitive processing. The present study examined whether concurrent consumption of caffeine may differentially affect these aspects of alcohol and performance. A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled design was utilised in which 64 healthy young volunteers received either 0.66 g/kg alcohol, caffeine (110-120 mg), both or neither. Performance was assessed using a four choice reaction time task (FCRT) with elements of repetitive (predictable) and random stimuli sequences and the digit symbol substitution task (DSST). Individuals on alcohol made significantly more errors during both fixed and random FCRT sequences, and there was evidence of weak antagonism of these effects by caffeine on the latter measure. On the DSST test of psychomotor speed, alcohol was associated with a significant slowing, the caffeine group were significantly faster and there was clear antagonism of the effects of alcohol by caffeine. These findings confirm that alcohol consumption is associated a greater number of errors and provide some evidence for task-specific antagonism of alcohol's cognitive effects by caffeine.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Alcohol; Antagonism; Caffeine; Speed/accuracy trade-off
Subjects:	B200 Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacy C800 Psychology
Department:	Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User:	Becky Skoyles
Date Deposited:	11 Feb 2015 17:14
Last Modified:	12 Oct 2019 16:27
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/19381

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