Driving and Alzheimer's disease

Psychol Neuropsychiatr Vieil. 2005 Sep;3(3):163-8
Authors: Roche J
Although most aged people remain safe drivers, a greater risk for crashes due to medical conditions is observed in the elderly. Impairment of important functions for safe driving such as visuospatial skills, attention, memory and judgement are observed in dementia, particularly in Alzheimer's disease. The accident rate increases from 9.4 accidents per million vehicle kilometers traveled for 80 to 85 year-old drivers, but raises to 163.6 for drivers with moderate AD. Patients and their families should be informed that patients with mild dementia related to Alzheimer's disease (stage 1 on the Clinical Dementia Rating, CDR), have a substantially increased rate of traffic accidents and therefore should not drive. But subjects in the pre-dementia phase (stage 0.5 at the CDR, mild cognitive impairment) also pose significant driving safety problems. In most States of the USA, and many European countries, but not in France, law requires regular investigating of driving performance in the elderly.