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Video: Hypothyroidism impairs driving ability, sometimes more than alcohol
In this video exclusive, Kenneth B. Ain, MD, of the University of Kentucky Medical Center and director of the thyroid cancer program at the VA Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, discusses the risks of driving an automobile for patients with hypothyroid.
“Although most clinicians who deal with patients with thyroid disease know that patients are profoundly impaired by hypothyroidism, this has not been evidenced by published literature. To the contrary, nobody has truly studied the changes that take place in hypothyroidism,” Ain told Endocrine Today. The study, funded in part by Genzyme, was constructed to evaluate the driving ability and neurologic function of patients who had already been made hypothyroid as a routine part of thyroid cancer therapy.
“In terms of real public health menace; in terms of driving and the ability to stop a vehicle and perform properly in dangerous situations with dangerous machinery, this has never been studied,” he said.
“The stopping ability of patients for braking the vehicle was as bad as those above the legal limit for alcohol intoxication,” Ain said in reference to the study data.
Ain also mentioned a Colorado study that showed that as many as 9% of people were hypothyroid without being aware of their condition. In addition, he cited research that shows that almost a third of patients being treated for hypothyroid were not compliant with prescriptions subscribed to them by a physician. — by Reagan Copeland