INTRODUCTION Previous studies have suggested that the two opposite poles of psychomotor disturbances in unipolar depression (UD) - retardation and agitation - require different treatment strategies as the psychomotor overactivation requires an augmentation of the antidepressant therapy with mood stabilizers and/or atypical antipsychotics. OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to objectiv...

STUDY OBJECTIVES The Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) contains variable response-stimulus intervals (RSI). Our goal is to investigate the effect of RSI on performance to determine whether sleep deprivation affects the ability to attend to events across seconds and whether this effect is independent of impairment in sustaining attention across minutes, as measured by time on task. DESIGN A con...

BACKGROUND Many patients have preoperative anxiety; therefore, the development of a strong anxiolytic with minimal psychomotor impairment for premedication may be desirable. METHODS In this study, 60 patients were randomized into two groups to receive either oral Passiflora incarnata (500 mg, Passipy IranDarouk) (n = 30) or placebo (n = 30) as premedication, 90 min before surgery. A numerical...

The Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) is considered the gold standard fatigue detection device and is used frequently in fatigue research. With the rapid development of new technologies it is essential to develop PVT available on different platforms such as touchscreen devices. The big advantage of such PVT is that it can be implemented on small devices and can be easily used in field studies. T...

BACKGROUND Diminished executive function and attentional control has been reported in chronic pain patients. However, the precise pattern of impairment in these aspects of cognition in chronic pain remains unclear. Moreover, a decline in psychomotor speed could potentially influence executive and attentional control performance in pain patients. OBJECTIVE To examine different aspects of execu...

OBJECTIVES A cross sectional survey of dentists in the west of Scotland and unmatched controls was conducted to find the effect of chronic exposure to mercury on health and cognitive functioning. METHODS 180 dentists were asked to complete a questionnaire that included items on handling of amalgam, symptoms experienced, possible influences on psychomotor function, and the 12 item general heal...