title: Driving and dementia: a clinical update for mental health professionals.
abstract: Most people with mild dementia can continue to drive, but dementia is progressive and many patients and clinicians will be faced with questions about driving safety in the course of their illness. Determining when this happens is a complex decision, with risks of personal and public safety needing to be weighed against individual patient benefits of driving in terms of autonomy, independence and well-being. Decisions need to make reference to cognitive abilities, as well as other factors including physical comorbidity, vision, mobility, insight and history of driving errors and accidents. Deciding to stop driving, or being required to stop driving is often difficult for patients to accept and can be a particularly problematic consequence of a dementia diagnosis. Legal frameworks help in decision-making but may not provide sufficient detail to advise individual patients. We review the current guidelines and evidence relating to driving and dementia to help clinicians answer questions about driving safety and to consider the full range of assessment tools available.
authors.affiliation: Centre for the Health of the Elderly, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle, UK.
authors.forename: Charlotte L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Allan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Behrman
authors.affiliation: Older People's Services, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Baruch
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Klaus P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Ebmeier
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D000066491:Clinical Decision-Making; D003657:Decision Making; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011581:Psychological Tests; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: GERIATRIC MEDICINE; MENTAL HEALTH; PRIMARY CARE