Antipsychotics and driving ability

Abstract

Driving a vehicle is an important everyday life skill associated to a psychiatric patient's autonomy and identity. Nevertheless, the right to drive is not a right at all, it is a privilege granted and regulated by rules and restrictions from the States that have also the duty to pull this privilege and deny the ability to legally drive in potentially unsafe drivers. The decision about for whom and when to forbid driving is a difficult matter of judgment that must remain a clinical and professional judgment within the medical encounter. Both antipsychotics as the psychiatric disorders target of these psychoactive drugs produce changes of psychomotor performance that can interfere with the ability to drive safely. Moreover, it is really hard to distinguish between the effects of the disease itself as opposed to the effects of the medication when studying the interaction between antipsychotics and driving ability. Previous results of our research in the field indicate that psychiatric patients who improved clinically after drug treatment also showed improvements in driving ability. So, adequate psychotropic treatment causes a positive effect on driving performance that outweighs the possible deleterious effect of medication. However, it remains essential to supply mental health professionals with new information, which is quantitatively and qualitatively valid, on the role of antipsychotics in driving ability. The purpose of the present lecture is to review research undertaken to-date on the effects of antipsychotic medications on driving ability. A search of various databases, including Medline, Embase and PsycInfo, will be conducted.Disclosure of interestThe author declares that he has no competing interest.