Chronic Neurological Conditions and Driving

Chronic Neurological Conditions and Driving

As people age, their bodies start to break down. People often notice that they may not recover as quickly after a workout and that they still feel sore the next morning. The same is true of the brain. Sometimes, people develop chronic neurological conditions that can impact their reflexes, judgment, and ability to drive.

When people talk about chronic neurological conditions, several examples could have extreme impacts on their ability to not only drive but also to relate to their friends and families. Even though someone may technically still be alive, many people who know someone with a chronic neurological condition liken it to a traumatic brain injury, in that a person's personality and ability to perform executive functions could be completely gone. A few common examples include:

Alzheimer's Disease: This is the most common form of dementia. The symptoms of this disease can be similar to the symptoms of a traumatic brain injury and can include memory loss but also numerous other symptoms, including forgetting the faces of family and friends, the inability to control their emotions, and problems with their sleep schedule. Someone who drives with this disease has the potential to cause serious auto accidents.

Frontotemporal Dementia: This is a chronic neurological condition that might be seen on an MRI, similar to the diagnosis of a traumatic brain injury. However, it can only be confirmed with a biopsy. This form of dementia hits the frontal and temporal lobes. Damage to these lobes removes the ability to perform executive functions, exercise judgment, and can make them prone to dramatic emotional swings. Without the ability to exercise proper judgment, individuals are prone to making rash decisions behind the wheel of a car, possibly leading to traumatic injuries.
These are only a few of the many types of chronic neurological conditions.

An Informative Research Paper and Review

A recent research paper exploring the impacts of these diseases on someone's driving ability was released by a team of medical professionals. The paper starts out by noting that the prevalence of some chronic neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease, is rising rapidly. This is because people are living longer, giving them more time to develop these conditions. There are several problems that these diseases can have on someone's ability to drive, including:

Cognition: People may have trouble reacting quickly to the changing circumstances around them. They may also forget where they are going and have trouble with directions. Rash decisions behind the wheel of a car can place other people at risk.

Visual Disturbances: Depending on where in the brain these diseases hit, they can make it hard for people to see what is going on around them. Reduced ability to see their surroundings can make it hard for people to drive safely on the road.

Motor Function: In particular, Parkinson's Disease impacts someone's motor skills. While driving may seem to be a passive process, people need fast reflexes to react to the changes in the road. If people cannot move their hands and feet quickly, they could have trouble taking evasive action on the road.

The paper discusses that standards need to be set for individuals with chronic neurological conditions to retain their license. As their symptoms worsen, consideration should be given to removing their license for the safety of themselves and others on the road.

What Needs to be Done to Address this Problem

While this sounds like a great idea on the surface, there are some problems that this task presents. First, these conditions are different and can all have different symptoms. Some people may have more severe symptoms than others. The easy solution to this is to quantify the symptoms. However, symptoms can fluctuate even on a day to day basis, and it can be hard to objectively quantify these symptoms. Therefore, more research must be done on the severity of these symptoms and, specifically, the impact that they have on someone's ability to drive. Those who have been injured by someone with a chronic neurological condition should contact a professional legal adviser to discuss the options that they have to pay their medical and repair bills.

Image Attribution: The MRI scan from the top of the page was found first on Wikimedia Commons and has been printed with permission under the CC BY SA License, version 3.0.
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