Driving performance of long-term users of sedating antidepressants and benzodiazepines

Objective: Using benzodiazepines and certain antidepressants is associated with an increased risk of motor vehicle crashes due to impaired driving skills. Hence, several countries prohibit people who use these drugs from driving. Traffic regulations for driving under the influence of these drugs are, however, largely based on single-dose studies with healthy participants. The effects of drugs on chronic users may be different because of potential development of tolerance or by adapting behavior. In this study, we test the effects of anti-depressants, hypnotics, or anxiolytics use on driving performance in patients who use these drugs for different durations and compare the effects to healthy controls' performance.

Methods: Sixty-six healthy controls and 82 medication users were recruited to perform four drives in a driving simulator. Patients were divided into groups that used anti-depressants, hypnotics, or anxiolytics, for shorter or longer than 3 years (i.e. LT3- or LT3+, respectively). The minimum term of use was 6 months. Driving behavior was measured in terms of longitudinal and lateral control (speed variability and Standard Deviation of Lateral Position: SDLP), brake reaction time, and time headway. Impaired driving performance was defined as performing similar to driving with a Blood Alcohol Concentration of 0.5‰ or higher, determined by means of non-inferiority analyses.

Results: Reaction time analyses revealed inconclusive findings in all groups. No significant performance differences between matched healthy controls, LT3- (n = 2), and LT3+ (n = 8) anxiolytics users were found. LT3+ antidepressants users (n = 12) did not perform inferior to their matched controls in terms of SDLP. LT3- hypnotics users (n = 6) showed more speed variability than their matched healthy controls, while this effect was not found for the LT3+ group (n = 14): the latter did not perform inferior to the healthy controls. Regarding Time Headway, no conclusions about the LT3- hypnotics group could be drawn, while the LT3+ group did not perform inferior compared to the control group.

Conclusions: The small number of anxiolytics users prohibits drawing conclusions about clinical relevance. Although many outcomes were inconclusive, there is evidence that some elements of complex driving performance may not be impaired (anymore) after using antidepressants or hypnotics longer than 3 years.