On-the-Road Driving Performance the Morning after Bedtime Use of Suvorexant 20 and 40 mg : A Study in Non-Elderly Healthy Volunteers

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To evaluate next-morning driving performance in adults younger than 65 years, after single and repeated doses of suvorexant 20 and 40 mg. DESIGN: Double-blind, placebo-controlled, 4-period crossover study. SETTING: Maastricht University, The Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS: 28 healthy volunteers (15 females), aged 23 to 64 years. INTERVENTIONS: Suvorexant (20 and 40 mg) for 8 consecutive nights; zopiclone 7.5 mg nightly on day 1 and 8; placebo. MEASUREMENTS: Performance on day 2 and 9 (9 h after dosing) using a one-hour standardized highway driving test in normal traffic, measuring Standard Deviation of Lateral Position (SDLP). Drug-placebo changes in SDLP >2.4 cm were considered to reflect meaningful driving impairment. RESULTS: Mean drug-placebo changes in SDLP following suvorexant 20 and 40 mg were 1.01 and 1.66 cm on day 2, and 0.48 and 1.31 on Day 9, respectively. The 90% CIs of these changes were all below 2.4 cm. Symmetry analysis showed that more subjects had SDLP changes >2.4 cm than CONCLUSIONS: As assessed by mean changes in SDLP, there was no clinically meaningful residual effect of suvorexant in doses of 20 and 40 mg on next-morning driving (9 h after bedtime dosing) in healthy subjects Language: en