What Does an Antidepressant Survey After License Suspension Tell Us About Driving?
A study of 6,316 drivers referred for forensic assessment after license suspension recorded antidepressant use in 132, or 2.1%. That number is a proportion within a selected group of drivers. Its meaning depends on how the researchers identified medication use and why the drivers were referred.
Medication history and toxicology were separate
The study relied on drivers’ reports for antidepressants. It did not confirm those medications in blood, urine or hair. Among the 132 who reported antidepressant use, 28 tested positive for other psychoactive substances. Those tests did not establish that an antidepressant contributed to the driving event.
What the denominator leaves open
The cohort included people undergoing mandatory assessment after suspension related to driving under the influence. The study lacked a comparison group of drivers without such a suspension. It therefore cannot estimate how antidepressant use changes crash risk or establish an individual driver’s medication exposure or impairment at the time of driving.
Source
Filardi et al., Pharmaceuticals · Full text
