Pain medication may not impair driving

CHICAGO, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Despite warnings "not to operate heavy machinery," long-term pain medication apparently does not impair a person’s ability to drive safely, a U.S. study found.

Dr. Asokumar Buvanendran of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago said opioid pain relievers such as morphine and other narcotics carry warning labels urging patients not to drive or operate heavy machinery during use.

Buvanendran’s study compared two groups of patients: 51 chronically receiving oral morphine and 49 -- the control group -- receiving no pain medication.

Each study participant drove for approximately 12 minutes in a driving simulator that measured deviation from the center of the road, weaving, the number of accidents and reaction time to surprise events.

The study found the amount of weaving was 3.83 feet for both sets of drivers, and the opioid group had 5.33 collisions compared to the non-opioid group with 5.04 -- considered no statistical difference. Reaction time was also similar for both groups.

The study suggests that patients who need long-term pain medicine may "become tolerant" to the medication side-effects that potentially impair function, Buvanendran said.

The findings are being presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting in San Francisco.