Summary
Medications, including mental health medications, can affect our ability to drive. All medications, even over-the-counter medications, have side effects. Mental health medications can be life savers. Never stop your medications without consulting the person who prescribed the medications to you. Sometimes the side effects of medications are worth the benefits of the medications. You may need to adjust your driving habits while taking medications. A driver is responsible for the actions of the car/truck/van he operates. Safer driving habits mean safer roads and safer communities for all of us.
Why This Matters
Medications prescribed to address mental health symptoms benefit many people. In the USA, adults who can drive do take medications to treat mental health symptoms. Driving and mental health medications are not an uncommon combination.
According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), data from the National Health Interview Survey, conducted in 2020 in the USA, and related to the previous 12 (twelve) months, revealed that among those aged 45 to 64 years old, 17.7% had taken medications for their mental health symptoms; among those over 65 years old, 17.3% had taken medications for their mental health symptoms; and among those between the ages of 18 years old and 44 years old, 15.4% had taken medications for their mental health symptoms.
You may read the full report on the CDC website. Please consult the National Center for Health Statistics section of the CDC for this Data Brief and other statistics:
Psychotropic (Psychiatric) Medications
Medications prescribed for mental health symptoms can be life savers. Do not stop taking your medications. Please consult with your health care professionals, including the prescriber of each medication, before you decide to stop any medication.
Medications have side effects. Even over-the-counter medications have side effects. When taking any medication, it is important to learn about potential side effects before you take the medication. Speak with your pharmacist and with the person prescribing the medication for information about side effects. It is also important to notice what specific side effects that you experience. Above all, discuss with your prescriber the benefits of the medications ordered for you and the balance between side effects and benefits.
Your mental wellbeing matters. Taking the medications prescribed to you to keep you feeling well mentally may require you to work around the side effects of the medications. Isn’t that what many of us do in all aspects of our lives? We develop workarounds and we carry on.
Driving and the Side Effects of Mental Health Medications
Mental health medications can affect our driving. Medications can affect driving if the side effects impact our reflexes; our memory; our muscles; our vision; our level of alertness; our attention; our ability to sleep; our ability to manage our bowels and bladder; our blood sugar level; our blood pressure; and the list goes on.
You ask, why do I mention bladder and bowels? Remember a moment in time when you felt the urge to urinate. Were you able to focus on anything other than ‘I need to find a bathroom’?
Consider that if your blood pressure is elevated (high), you may have difficulty seeing or you may have a headache and not be able to focus well.
Someone who has memory issues may not recall the driving directions or even how to operate a vehicle.
A person whose blood sugar drops may not be able to use their brain because our brains operate by using glucose (sugar) and the brain directs the functions of our body. A person whose blood sugar goes too high may also experience cognitive and physical symptoms affecting their ability to drive.
Lack of sleep can affect mood, level of alertness, ability to learn, processing and accessing information, attention, reflexes, energy level, and other capabilities we require in order to drive.
Safe Driving
A motorized vehicle is a machine with power and weight. The operator of the machine is responsible for the actions of the machine. Each one of us who drives is responsible for the impact the vehicle has on people, animals, and the environment. We are responsible for the consequences caused by the use of a powerful and heavy machine called our car/van/truck.
In order to be responsible drivers, we need to be in tip top shape when we are behind the wheel. If medications affect our functioning, we should reconsider getting behind the wheel. Maybe someone else should be operating the vehicle.
There are laws against driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, for good reason. That includes the use of cannabis while driving. Cannabis, alcohol, illicit drugs, and medications can and do affect our level of alertness, our muscle functions, and our reflexes, among other functions required for safe driving.
Could you live with yourself if you were responsible for vehicular homicide (killing someone while driving)?
How would you feel if someone under the influence of medications or any other substance killed one of your friends, colleagues, or family members?
Recall the death of Princess Diana. Even those people who were not related to her; who are not supporters of the British Royal Family or any monarchy; and who had never heard of her; were impacted by her death, knowing that a motor vehicle accident senselessly ended a human life.
Mental health medications and driving may not be a good combination. Speak with your prescriber.
Takeaways
Medications used to treat psychiatric symptoms can affect one’s ability to drive safely.
Speak with your health care team, especially the person who prescribes your medications, about whether you ought to alter your driving habits; stop driving altogether; or adjust how you take your medications.
Never stop medications without consulting with the prescriber of the medications.
Safer drivers mean safer roads and safer communities for all of us.
To life.
Resources on driving while taking mental health (and other) drugs
AARP Driver Safety Resources
https://www.aarp.org/auto/driver-safety/driving-tips/
AAA Prescription & Over-The-Counter Drugs & Driving
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