Driving and dementia: a clinician’s guide
نویسنده
چکیده
Driving and dementia is a relatively new field of research. The subject first appeared in the literature in the 1980s and since then the number of studies exploring this issue has exploded. The population is ageing and the number of drivers around the world is increasing. Consequently, the increasing number of people driving with dementia will pose significant demands on the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and on clinicians about how best to protect individuals and the wider public. Driving is not a right. A car is a lethal weapon and drivers are granted a licence provided the strict criteria set by the DVLA are met. In the UK, this is analogous to having a firearm or shotgun licence. In fact, the UK guidelines for driving with a mental illness (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, 2012) are stricter than those for owning a gun (Thompson 2005). Driving is not safe or even possible in progressed dementias, but as awareness and diagnostic techniques improve and diagnoses are made earlier, clinicians need to be more fully informed when advising people with early dementia or mild cognitive impairment on how their driving might be affected as their condition progresses.
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