Remacemide & Driving
A recent Dutch study shows that remacemide, when taken at recommended dosages, does not impair driving performance.
Researchers from the Experimental Psychopharmacology Unit at the Brain and Behaviour Institute and Faculty of Psychology at Maastricht University (The Netherlands) engaged 22 healthy volunteers in a three-way, double-blind, cross-over driving study, in which the effects of carbamezapine, remacemide and placebo on driving performance were evaluated.
During a 12-day incremental dosing regimen, 2 driving tests were performed on days 8, 10 and 12 of each therapeutic period, during which treatment effects were assessed.
Several tests were taken. Participants were required to drive a test vehicle at a constant speed and in a steady lateral position between delineated lane boundaries, while researchers measured the standard deviation of lateral position (SDLP), indicating their precision in tracking. Participants were required to drive the same vehicle, following a leading car at a specific distance. They were required to maintain that same distance as the leading car accelerated or decelerated, during which the researchers measured time to speed adaptations (TSA) and brake reaction time.
The participants' driving performances were unaffected by remacemide. However, the researchers concluded that carbamazepine can cause sufficient impairment to put drivers at risk, at least during initiation therapy. Throughout treatment with carbamazepine, the SDLP was increased and TSA lengthened. Changes in SDLP (relative to placebo) were comparable to those seen in drivers with blood alcohol concentrations of 0.05 g/dL.
Remacemide is being tested for treatment of Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, Parkinson disease, other neurodegenerative diseases, and epilepsy.
Remacemide is
not available in Canada.
Source
Psychopharmacology (2002)159:203-210. "A comparative study of the effects of carbamazepine and the NMDA receptor antagonist remacemide on road tracking and car-following performance in actual traffic"
http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00213/contents/01/00898/
