Cautions About Driving While Taking Medication

Cautions About Driving While Taking Medication

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QUESTION: I obtain my prescriptions from a well equipped and modern pharmacy
that provides a little slip that lists the cautions I should observe while
taking the medication. A warning about driving while taking the medication
appears frequently, even when the medication is not a sedative or
tranquilizer. Could you explain why, since I have never experienced any
difficulties with my medications?
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ANSWER: Despite all the controls and experimentation done before any
medication is allowed to be prescribed, we humans continue to react to all new
things, including medications, as individuals, not as collections of
statistics. These individual reactions are different for each of us, and so
while many people never experience a negative side effect from medications,
some do, and it is to protect them that the cautions are published. When the
investigation of a new medication has shown that it may cause drowsiness,
dizziness, overstimulation or confusion in some people, the notice is given to
all that are to take a new medicine for the first time. There is no way of
predicting who may be affected, and so good sense dictates that you refrain
from driving until you are sure that you will experience no ill effects from
the medication. Give your system a trial period, and when you have proven
that nothing unusual is occurring, you may then return to your normal routine
without anxiety or doubt.