CAR WRECKS LINKED TO ANXIETY DRUGS

Valium, Others May Increase Risk

LONDON (AP) -- Drivers taking commonly prescribed anti-anxiety drugs such
as Valium are more than twice as likely to be involved in traffic accidents
as those not taking the drugs, a new study says.

The risk of accidents for people under age 45 is more than three times as
great for those who take the drugs, according to the research, published in
today's edition of the British medical journal the Lancet.

``The current warnings are that if you feel drowsy, don't drive. That needs
to be changed,'' said Dr. Tom MacDonald, a clinical pharmacologist from the
University of Dundee in Scotland who led the study. ``I would say: If you
use these drugs, don't drive.''

Thousands of lives could be saved worldwide every year, and hundreds of
thousands of traffic accidents avoided, if people who use such drugs did
not drive while on medication, the researchers said.

Tranquilizers such as Valium, generically known as diazepam, are commonly
used to treat anxiety, other stress-related disorders and muscle spasms.

Patients usually feel drowsy in the first few days of taking the drugs, but
crashes occur at the same rate regardless of whether drowsiness occurs,
MacDonald said.

A representative of Hoffman LaRoche, the Swiss maker of Valium, said his
company's warning labels are very clear.

``Patients should be cautioned against engaging in hazardous occupations
requiring complete mental alertness, such as . . . driving a motor
vehicle,'' Jeff Soper said, reading from a Valium label at the company's
U.S. headquarters in Nutley, N.J.

Dr. Desmond O'Neill, a geriatrician at the Center for Mobility Enhancement
at Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, viewed the conclusions
with caution.

``They've made us think hard, but it still isn't enough evidence to tell
people not to drive,'' he said. ``Is it the illness or the medication? If
you're that agitated that you need the drug, maybe that's the problem.''

In conducting the study, the researchers compared the records of all
prescriptions dispensed in the Dundee area with the 19,386 traffic
accidents the local police responded to between April 1992 and June 1995. A
total of 1,731 people involved in those accidents were taking one of the
drugs in the study.

Of the accidents involving those 1,731 people, four included fatalities. Of
those, three drivers were taking anti-anxiety drugs on the day of the
accident and the fourth driver had taken anti-anxiety drugs during the
study period.

The researchers looked at four groups of medications. Besides anti-anxiety
drugs taken during the daytime, they also examined antidepressants such as
Prozac, and other drugs, including sleeping pills, that act on the brain.
Only the anti-anxiety drugs were associated with an increased risk of
traffic accidents.