NCJ Number
225068
Journal
Forensic Examiner Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Dated: Fall 2007 Pages: 50-54
Date Published
2007
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the characteristics of the antidepressant withdrawal syndrome and indicates that the clinical effects of this syndrome on a driver might be misinterpreted by police officers as drug or alcohol intoxication under standardized field sobriety tests.
Abstract
Millions of Americans annually receive selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants and dual-action antidepressants for their symptoms of depression. Although these medicines are effective in countering the adverse symptoms of depression, they also place their users at risk for a well-documented withdrawal syndrome if they abruptly stop taking their medication. The features of this withdrawal syndrome may produce significant cognitive, memory, vision, and motor impairments that adversely affect driving skills. Such a circumstance creates the paradox of a potentially impaired driver who is not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol. When a police officer stops a driver on suspicion of impaired driving, the most common procedure is to have the driver perform a field sobriety test. The standard sobriety tests involve the performance of physical and/or mental tests believed to show the presence or absence of drug/alcohol intoxication; however, a patient experiencing antidepressant withdrawal syndrome may have a number of symptoms that would cause them to fail these standard sobriety tests. Police agencies and their patrol officers must be instructed in the symptoms of the antidepressant withdrawal syndrome and its implications for the validity of standard field sobriety tests as evidence of drug/alcohol intoxication. These tests are not sufficient evidence of intoxication without supporting evidence of a blood concentration of the suspected drug. 24 references