Local pharmacy pharmacists’ responses to the prescription of drugs that influence driving

In 2013, the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare issued a notification regarding drugs that influence driving. Afterward, a questionnaire survey of these drugs was conducted involving health insurance pharmacies in Tokyo and Shiga Prefectures. As a result, 503 (Tokyo) and 116 (Shiga) pharmacies provided completed questionnaires. The notification was su‹ciently and slightly recognized by 20％ and 44％ of the surveyed pharmacies, respectively, and drugs with a driving-related warning were recognized by 31％ of the pharmacies. In addition, 23％ of the pharmacies reported that they always asked patients whether they drive. The influence on driving of antianxiety drugs, hypnotics, antiepileptics, and smoking-cessation drugs was always explained to patients by 74％, 72％, 64％, and 40％ of the pharmacies, respectively. Concerning responses to the prescription of drugs influencing driving, the proportion of surveyed pharmacies in Tokyo and Shiga Prefectures that directed patients not to drive was 71％ and 53％, respectively, and that directed patients to stop driving on developing any symptom was 32％ and 49％. Tokyo and Shiga Prefectures showed a significant difference in the reason for not prohibiting driving; the proportion of pharmacies that regarded strict medication adherence as of major importance to treat patients' primary diseases was 22％ and 43％, respectively. This difference might have been attributable to a high percentage of patients (80％) driving to pharmacies in Shiga Prefecture. To facilitate the prescription of drugs influencing driving, it is recommended to design drug-specific pharmaceutical education manuals that also give consideration to patients’ QOL.