Schmidt U, Brendemuhl D, Engels K, Schenk N, Ludemann E.
Arbeits-und Forschungsgemeinschaft fur Strassenverkehr und Verkehrssicherheit,
University of Cologne, Germany. Pharmacopsychiatry 1991 Jul;24(4):121-6
Abstract
101 elderly motorists with reduced reaction capacity were examined under real traffic conditions with regard to their driving ability. They were given a daily dose of 4.8 g
piracetam or placebo over a six-week period in a randomised double-blind study.
The percentage of correctly solved sign-observance items, which reflects orientation and perception in real traffic conditions, increased in the placebo-treated test-group from 79.86% in the pretest to 80.07% in the retest, whereas the test subjects of the
piracetam-treated group improved their performance from 77.08% to 84.16%.
After being treated with piracetam for 6 weeks, the drivers showed a significantly better performance than the placebo-group. Of particular interest is the finding that the test-subjects who had scored less than 80% in the pretest improved without exception in the retest after treatment with
piracetam.