The Impact of Chronic Pain Patients' Psychotropic Drug Knowledge and Warning Labels on the Decision Whether to Drive a Car or Not

Abstract

Objective. The attitudes of patients towards driving a car while taking medication with psychotropic side effects is unclear. A growing number of patients use these psychotropic medicines on a daily basis, and this may interfere with their ability to drive a car.

Methods. By means of a survey, we examined attitudes towards driving while using psychotropic medicinal drugs and the effect of warning labels on the decision whether to drive a car or not in patients with chronic pain.

Results. Fifty-eight of 100 patients possessing a driver's license used psychotropic medication. Despite warning labels affixed on the packages that these drugs might impair driving ability, the majority (71%) of these patients continued driving a car. A point of concern is that 40% of these patients reported not to be more cautious in traffic after taking psychotropic drugs.

Conclusion. The results of this survey indicate that drug warning labels applied by Dutch pharmacies do not significantly change attitudes towards driving a car in patients taking medicinal drugs with psychotropic side effects. Future road-safety campaigns should pay more attention to the impairing effects of psychotropic drugs on driving.

Keywords:

• Driving
• Psychotropic Drugs
• Medicines
• Warning Labels
• Chronic Pain

Notes

∗ = Patient who didn't knew if his/her medication had a warning sign

† Percentages calculated by referring to the number of patients that received medication with the warning label previously