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Antidepressant Use Tied to Poorer Driving

HealthDay

Monday, August 18, 2008

SUNDAY, Aug. 17 (HealthDay News) — Taking prescription antidepressants space of time still in a great degree depressed could impair driving cleverness, a new study suggests.

“We already know that depression causes concentration problems,” said study author Holly J. Dannewitz. “And now it appears that people taking antidepressants who also have relatively higher depression scores fare significantly worse when attempting to perform a computerized simulation of driving.”

Dannewitz conducted her research while a graduate student at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, where she is currently a psychology resident in a private practice.

She and her colleagues were scheduled to present their findings Sunday the American Psychological Association annual meeting, in Boston.

To gauge the possible impact antidepressants might have on driving performance, the research team asked 60 people to “drive” a computerized version of a car in a program that mimicked real-world conditions.

Approximately half of the participants were agitation at least one type of antidepressant, while the other half was taking in no degree medication (other than oral contraceptives in certain instances). Those put on antidepressants were screened for current levels of depression and were subsequently categorized as experiencing either low or high depression at the time of the driving test.

Participants had to perform common driving tasks such as braking, steering, and scanning sightlines in response to an unfolding video of car traffic, stop signs, speed limit signs, traffic lights, deer crossings, bicyclists, and even the appearance of helicopters.

People taking antidepressants who were highly depressed registered markedly worse scores on some driving skills than those not taking antidepressants, the team found. This appeared tied to poorer concentration and a weakened ability to react well to situations that divided their attention and relied on memory skills.

These deficits weren’t found among those who were taking antidepressants but had low depression scores. In fact, that group was found to execute their driving tasks with a precision equal to that of those not forward medication.

Dannewitz said that her future work would involve patients who are diagnosed with clinical depression but not on antidepressants. In this way, her team can determine whether it’s the depression, or medications used to treat it, that are at the root of the concentration problems.

“More research needs to be done, of succession,” she said. “And I wouldn’t want to instill fear in drivers. But I think that perhaps individuals who are seizure these medications should just be aware of the fact that they may cause concentration problems and injure reaction measure.”

Dannewitz also stressed that, “this consequence is not just a question for drivers, because the cognitive skills needed instead of driving are also needed for a lot of other skills.”

Dr. Bernard Carroll, scientific director of the Pacific Behavioral Research Foundation based in Carmel, California, agreed that it’s too early to draw specific conclusions from the study. But he said the findings weren’t surprising.

“There is already a exceedingly abyss literature about subtle impairments of higher cognitive occupation associated through clinical depression itself, apart from medications,” he noted. “I would add that, in any case, medication package inserts routinely warn patients about a whole host of issues whereas starting a course of psychotropic drugs, including warning against the handling of machinery, driving, or engaging in any occupation in which you can be injured. So, to that stretch, this concern isn’t new.”

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