Behavioural toxicity of antianxiety and antidepressant agents

Standard measures of psychomotor speed and central nervous system arousal were used to assess the behavioural toxicity of several antianxiety and antidepressant agents. The results indicate that, for the agents evaluated, there is a wide variation in the effects on cognitive function. As pharmacoeconomic factors become increasingly important, the cost of accidents due to the behavioural toxicity of these drugs must be taken into account when determining the true treatment costs.