Prescription Medication Question and CDL, (Librium) for anxiety.

I was allowed to keep taking the prescribed amount. I didn’t take it for very long, i found non-pharmaceutical coping strategies worked better for me.

 

Isn't anxiety one of the things they ask you about on your DOT physical questionnaire? And since all of the info is on a computer now, won't the fact that you've been diagnosed with anxiety in the past show up on the computer at every DOT physical that you would then have to get cleared for? I thought that some mental disorders were a disqualification from driving.

 

I think all states have some kind of an online prescription database for these kinds of controlled substances. Because it has been 10 years since I last had a DOT physical I can't speak from any direct experience. Yes, it is true these questions are part of the Physical long form, and I am sure being a medical provider they would have access to their state database, but in all honesty, I have never heard of an ME accessing it for something like a physical.

Remember these databases are for medical providers to check to make sure the person they are prescribing for has not been doctor shopping before they prescribe. MEs generally are not prescribing. Several years ago I was seen in one of the Veterans Affairs medical centers to see about a pain device. I had to go through a pain management Physician. Before he would even see me I had to pee in a cup and my name was run in the Virginia prescription database.

Now with all of that said I do think at some point the FMCSA will aggregate all the available information during this process. I have stated this many times and will do so again. There is going to come a day when a trucker will have a camera on them as they drive this camera will be able to detect changes with a driver. They will have to blow into a device that will check their breath. Then at some point, a probe will be stuck in the driver's rectum. You will be doing what Mr Spock use to say, be one with it!

 

It wont show up if he didnt tell them about it. They dont have access to your medical records

 

TRUE! BUT!!!! They do generally have access to the state-controlled substance prescription registry. This is a HIPAA exception. I just don't think they do the check. @JC1971 comment was about these databases not a doctor HIPAA covered medical records.

 

I was prescribed controlled substances before and they never found out.

 

If you were prescribed them why would it matter if they showed up or not? You did nothing illegal, you didn't drive and you no longer take them, I don't see the problem.

 

Somehow I think this discussion is not being fully understood somewhere. I have been using a lot of IFs. In the USA IF you get a legal RX for a controlled substance the pharmacy is REQUIRED BY LAW in some states to upload that RX to a state Prescriptions database. This database is supposed to be secure and only people with a need to know are the only ones to have access. Sadly these databases have been created to fight the generally illegal doctor shopping people sometimes do to get their "fix".

Now, after looking at comment #12 closer they never said a prescription database, but in all honesty, prescriptions are the only thing I know of that is available to a ME that is anywhere close to the meaning of a "computer".