WORSE THAN DROWSINESS

"Don't medicate and drive" might soon become as common an admonition as the
one that warns against drinking and driving if the National Transportation
Safety Board decides to investigate the effects prescription and
over-the-counter medicines have on motorists.

Most patients are familiar with the warnings currently printed on their
medicine bottles. Typically, medicines used to treat cold and allergy
symptoms warn the patient that the drugs can cause drowsiness. In reality,
though, the medicines can impair the patient's ability to drive even
without causing drowsiness. That means that many drivers -- because they
don't feel sleepy -- may be driving with a false sense of security. The
government ought to warn those drivers that by taking certain medicines
they might be unknowingly increasing their chances of collision and injury
- -- or even death.

Health and transportation officials don't know now how often legal
medicines cause crashes because the toxicology tests law enforcement
officials perform on drivers after crashes are designed only to detect
alcohol and illegal drugs.

Still, since 1987 NTSB officials think that legal drugs have contributed to
at least 150 car, truck, bus, boat or airplane accidents.

A driver who had taken an antihistamine could be just as impaired as a
driver who had consumed alcohol, but law enforcement officials would never
know because they wouldn't test for the presence of that drug.

Some driving simulations suggest that 15 percent of people who use
diphenhydramine, the most common ingredient in over-the-counter
antihistamines, are likely to crash. Most of those people don't report
feeling drowsy beforehand. Nevertheless, their ability to quickly react to
a road hazard is slowly diminishing and their driving ability might
deteriorate to the point that they're weaving across the road.

Medicines designed to alleviate a patient's anxiety are considered risky,
especially for older patients. Some anxiety medications known as
benzodizepines may double the risk that a driver will have a crash.
Pharmacologists say the risk is 13 times higher during a patient's first
week of therapy because the person's body is not yet acclimated to the drug.

That sort of information is important for patients to know -- for their own
safety as well as others'.

There certainly seems to be sufficient reason for the NTSB and government
health officials to take a close look at the risks drivers may face when
taking prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Warning motorists about
possible drowsiness is important, but that may not be enough.