The effect of ethanol on reaction times was studied in 5 healthy men to test the construct validity of the measure. Reaction times were studied among 61 healthy controls and 99 patients with chronic low-back pain (68 moderate and 31 severe) to evaluate the diagnostic value of reaction time measurements. Analysis of receiver operating characteristics was used to calculate the discriminative power of the reaction time measurements. The severity of low-back pain was associated with slow reaction times but the diagnostic value of a single reaction time measurement was low due to insufficient sensitivity. In conclusion, even though many patients with low-back pain suffer from central impairment of motor function, a single reaction time measurement is not usable in evaluation of the severity of low-back pain.
References
1.
BaylorA. J.LayneC. S.MayfieldR. D.OsborneL.SpirdusoW. W. (1989) Effects of ethanol on human fractionated response times. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 23, 31–40.
2.
BeckJ. R.ShultzE. K. (1986) The use of relative operating characteristic (ROC) curves in test performance evaluation. Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, 110, 13–20.
3.
BlandJ. M.AltmanD. G. (1986) Statistical methods for assessing agreement between two methods of clinical measurement. Lancet, 1(8476), 307–310.
4.
Chodzko-ZajkoW. J.RingelR. (1987) Physiological fitness measures and sensory and motor performance in aging. Experimental Gerontology, 22, 317–328.
5.
EraP.JokelaJ.HeikkinenE. (1986) Reaction and movement times in men of different ages: A population study. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 63, 111–130.
6.
FairbankJ. C. T.CouperJ.DaviesJ. B.O'BrienJ. P. (1980) The Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire. Physiotherapy, 66, 271–273.
7.
ForsströmJ. (1992) Machine learning in clinical medicine by knowledge acquisition from patient databases. Turku, Finland: Departments of Medicine and Clinical Chemistry, University of Turku.
8.
GricsbyJ.RosenbergN. L.BusenbarkD. (1995) Chronic pain is associated with deficits in information processing. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 81, 403–410.
9.
GustafsonR.KallmenH. (1990). Alcohol and the compensation hypothesis: A test with cognitive and psychomotor tasks. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 71, 1367–1374.
10.
HanleyJ. A.McNeilB. J. (1982) The meaning and use of the area under a receiver operating characterisric (ROC) curve. Radiology, 143, 29–36.
11.
HodgkinsJ. (1963) Reaction time and speed of movement in males and females of various ages. Research Quarterly, 34, 335–343.
12.
KauranenK.VanharantaH. (1996) Influences of aging, gender, and handedness on motor performance of upper and lower extremities. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 82, 515–525.
13.
LuotoS.HurriH.AlarantaH. (1995) Reaction time in patients with chronic low-back pain. European Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 5, 47–50.
14.
LuotoS.TaimelaS.HurriH.AaltoH.PyykköF.AlarantaH. (1996) Psychomotor speed and postural control in chronic low-back pain patients: A controlled follow-up study. Spine, 21, 2621–2627.
15.
MaylorE. A.RabbittP. M.ConnollyS. A. (1989) Rate of processing and judgment of response speed: Comparing the effects of alcohol and practice. Perception & Psychophysics, 45,431–438.
16.
MaylorE. A.RabbittP. M.JamesG. H.KerrS. A. (1990) Effects of alcohol and extended practice on divided-attention performance. Perception & Psychophysics, 48, 445–452.
17.
MillionR.HallW.NilsenK.BakerR.JaysonM. (1982) Assessment of the progress of the back pain patient. Spine, 7, 204.
18.
NuottoE. J.KorttilaK. T. (1991) Evaluation of a new computerized psychomotor test battery: Effects of alcohol. Pharmacology and Toxicology, 68, 360–365.
19.
PenfieldW.RasmussenT. (1968) The cerebral cortex of man. New York: Hafner
20.
SchmidtR. A. (1988) Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis. Champgn. IL: Human Kinetics.
21.
SwinnenS. P.SerrienD. J.WalterC. B.PhilippaertsR. (1995) The organization of patterns of multilimb coordination as revealed through reaction time measures. Experimental Brain Research, 104, 143–162.
22.
TaimelaS. (1991) Factors affecting reaction time testing and the interpretation of results. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 73, 1195–1202.
23.
TaimelaS. (1992) Information processing and accidental injuries. Sports Medicine, 14, 366–375.
24.
TaimelaS.ÖstermanK.AlarantaH.SoukkaA.KujalaU. M. (1993) Long psychomotor reaction time in patients with chronic low-back pain: Preliminary report. Archives of Physical Medicine an d Rehabilitation, 74, 1161–1164.
25.
WelfordA. T. (1980) Reaction time. London: Academic Press.
26.
WindesJ. D. (1991) Reaction time to a word in different orientations with letters rotated separately in different orientations. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 72, 299–305.
