• 12
  • January
    2012

Male users of the prescription medication methadone may be more than twice as likely as non-users to be involved in a motor vehicle accident, according to a new study published by researchers in Norway.

Baton Rouge car accident attorneys note that the study could be a jumping point for further inquiries into the safety of the medication. Methadone is a medicated treatment approach to curbing drug addiction. Although researchers highlighted the possible effects of methadone, they also insisted that more research was needed to confirm or dispute these preliminary findings, which used a data set that did not provide an ideal amount of information on each methadone user.

The data was gathered from two-and-a-half years' worth of motor vehicle accident reports, as well as data concerning the drug prescriptions of the individuals involved. Among the approximately 2,500 people that were prescribed methadone, 26 individuals were involved in car accidents -- a rate much higher than the average population.

Methadone is known to impair cognitive functioning in people, and its effects can be worse at the beginning of a treatment or shortly after dosing is increased.

But questions remain about the accuracy of the information. For example, only men experienced a heightened accident rate -- women's driving results were not statistically significant. The study was also unable to identify whether drivers involved in the accidents were using alcohol or other drugs, and researchers could not pinpoint the stage of treatment each user was in at the time of their accident.

Source: Reuters "Drivers on methadone twice as likely to crash" Dec. 30, 2011