Hypnotics drugs residual effects on monotonous simulated driving in elderly drivers ML Bocca 1-2 , S Marie 2 , C. Berthelon 3* , A. Coquerel 2 , V. Lelong-Boulouard 2 , M. Moessinger 4 , P. Denise 2 1 : Paris Sud-11 University, UPRES EA 4142, 91 405 Orsay Cedex, France 2 : Caen Basse-Normandie University, UPRES EA 3917, UFR Médecine, 14032 Caen Cedex, France 3 : INRETS (the french National Institut for Transport and Safety Research), Chemin de la Croix Blanche, 13300 Salon de Provence, France 4 : LAB (Laboratoire d'accidentologie, de biomécanique et d'étude des comportements humains) Renault-PSA, 132 rue des Suisses, 92000 Nanterre, France * : poster presenter INTRODUCTION Elderly people, and particularly women, already represent a large part of drivers and the proportion will increase in the future in most occidental countries. It was demonstrated that, motor, cognitive and sensory changes occuring with age alter driving performance. Moreover, these changes could interact with pathologies and pharmacokinetic modifications due to age and thus explain the increased risk of driving accidents in this population. Paradoxically, while insomnia is more frequent in elderly, most experimental studies assessing drugs effects are conducted on healthy young subjects. To date, no comparisons between young and elderly subjects have been made examining hypnotics effects on driving performance. The purpose of this work is to characterise the residual effects of zolpidem and zopiclone on monotonous car driving assessed using a driving simulator in elderly subjects. Monotonous car driving is widely used to assess residual effects of drugs, and previously showed residual effects of zopiclone in particular, in healthy young subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixteen healthy volunteers (8 men and 8 women) participated in this study. They were aged between 55 and 65 years. At 11.00 p.m. the day before each session, the subject took a tablet of either zolpidem 10mg (Zd), zopiclone 7.5mg (Zc), flunitrazepam 1mg (Fln) or a placebo (C). The study was conducted according to a balanced, double blind, cross-over design. Each subject followed four sessions held at intervals of at least two weeks. All the subjects were required to arise at 7.00 a.m.. The medication was administered at the subject's home under the supervision of an experimenter. The subject was required to retire to 1