A public awareness campaign to warn motorists of the dangers of driving when taking certain medications has been launched by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI), reports the Irish Times…Prescription and non-prescription medicines can impair a motorist mainly because they can make them drowsy or reduce concentration levels. The RSA believes that up to 20% of road deaths are caused by fatigue and they have expressed concern that certain medicines may be contributing to this.

Prof Han de Gier of the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, told a conference on medicine and road safety in Dublin recently, that the risk of a crash doubled for patients on certain medicines and was similar to having 80mgs of alcohol in the blood. He identified benzodiazepines, a class of psycho-active drug used to treat anxiety, stress and muscle spasms, as the most likely to impair driving. Among the commonly prescribed benzodiazepines are: Diazepam (Valium) to treat anxiety disorders and alcohol withdrawal; Flurazepam (Dalmane) a short-term insomnia treatment and Lorazepam (Ativan) which is often prescribed for anxiety.

The report continues, outlining proposals from the RSA for doctors to inform licensing authorities of an illness or condition that could impair their patient's ability to drive and how this could prove controversial.

Irish Times