What Your Doctor Is Reading: Drugs, Driving, and Accidents — Is Your Doctor Libel for Writing the Prescription?
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What your doctor is reading is a regular feature that reviews current information about medications from medical journals often read by physicians.
Does your doctor have any responsibility to inform you that your prescription medications may have an adverse effect on your ability to drive safely?
Obviously, you should not drive if your medications can interfere with your functioning. You are legally responsible for any accidents you cause by driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. But, is your doctor also responsible if other people are injured in the accident and she did not inform you about the side effects that may have been a factor in your accident?
Writing about the outcome of a recent court case in Massachusetts, the New England Journal of Medicine noted that, “Physicians who prescribe mind-affecting medications to patients who drive have an obligation to inform those patients of side effects that could impair their ability to drive safely.”
Some examples of medications that can impair your ability to drive are sedating antihistamines such as Benadryl; pain relievers such as Oxycontin; tranquilizers such as Valium; and, drugs used to treat high blood pressure such as Diovan.
What do you think?
Source:
Annas GJ. “Doctors, Drugs, and Driving — Tort Liability for Patient-Caused Accidents.” New England Journal of Medicine 2008 359:521-525. 03 Aug 2008.
Comments
If you have any questions about side effects of OxyContin, call J. David Haddox of Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin at 203-588-8000. Purdue Pharma and its 3 CEO’s Michael Friedman, Howard Udell and Paul Goldenheim were criminally convicted, and pled guilty, to misleading patients and physicians as to the addictive and abusive qualities of OxyContin. Their actions have resulted in a holocaust of addiction and death in every state. Haddox, the gatekeeper of Purdue Pharma, coined the word “pseudo addiction” to lead physicians to believe patients were not addicted to OxyContin. There is a special place in hell for all of them. Marianne Skolek, Activist for Victims of OxyContin and Purdue Pharma, a criminally convicted pharmaceutical company