Online PhD conferral mr. Nick N.J.J.M. van der Sluiszen

Key words: driving ability, drugs, long-term use, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, hypersomnolence

"Driving performance and neurocognition of patients with long-term medicinal drug treatment"

The research described in this thesis was aimed at assessing the influence of long-term drug use on driving ability and neurocognition (attention, reaction time, executive functioning). The main motivation for this thesis was to investigate whether long-term use of medicines can lead to changes in the regulations regarding traffic participation. Secondly, the thesis focused on identifying factors that contribute to tolerance development with long-term medication use. The results of the studies described in this thesis show that the inhibiting influence of medicines on driving ability decreases with long-term use. Factors contributing to this decrease include a reduction in clinical symptoms, tolerance development for the undesirable effects of drugs, and duration of treatment.