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Medicines & Driving

What is the connection between taking medicines and driving?

  • The drugs that you take, whether prescribed or illegal, will affect your body in a lot of ways.
  • The drugs will alter your brain function, thereby affecting the control of posture and body movements. The levels of impairment vary from person to person.
  • These impairments slow down your reaction time and ability to comprehend what you are seeing.
  • Thus, you are at risk of making wrong judgments and decisions, increasing the possibility of fatal accidents on the roads.

What are the drugs that may affect driving?

Drugs
Treatment
Examples
  • Antidepressants
  • Depression
  • Haloperidol, Chlorpromazine
  • Cough and cold preparations
  • Allergies, hay fever, cough and cold
  • Chlorpheniramine, Diphenhydramine, Promethazine, Cetirizine
  • Mood relaxing drugs
  • Anxiety, Sleeping problem
  • Benzodiazepine (Alprazolam, Midazolam)
  • Antihypertensives
  • High Blood Pressure
  • Beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors
  • Opioids analgesic
  • Pain, inflammation
  • Morphine Sulphate, Dihydrocodeine tartrate (DF118)
  • Anticonvulsants
  • Epilepsy, seizures, convulsion
  • Phenytoin

 

Last reviewed : 02 March 2011
Writer : Ainul Salhani bt. Abd Rahman
Reviewer : Siti Nurul Fathihah bt. Baharudin
    Hazlin bt. Othman