Drinking and Driving in 753 General Practice and Psychiatric Patients on Psychotropic Drugs

Psychotropic agents are widely prescribed. The effects of a drug represent a complex interaction between the chemical agent, the individual patient and the environment in which the administration of the drug takes place. Many patients use alcohol (a C.N.S. depressant) and control complex machinery. It is necessary to know how a drug interacts with alcohol and especially how it affects driving skills. Murray (1960), in a 90 day study of 68 drivers on chlordiazepoxide, found that traffic accidents were ten times more frequent than the predicted control rate. Zirkle et al . (1959) established that chlorpromazine had “a supplementary and possible potentiating effect” on the impairment of co-ordination and judgement produced by alcohol in 24 human subjects.