Bottom Line
The decision about whether a patient can or cannot drive involves balancing a moral and often legal obligation to identify unsafe drivers in order to ensure public safety with the desire and often need of older patients to drive in order to maintain independence.
Physicians should be aware that patients with mild dementia as a group are at increased risk for accidents while driving. Clinicians should assess patients according to the criteria described above to try to identify patients who are at increased driving risk. Patients who are identified as high risk should be asked to give up their driver’s license. If a patient prefers not to, or if there is uncertainty about their degree of risk, the patient can be referred for a formal professional or government on-road driving evaluation.
Reference
D.J. Iverson, G.S. Gronseth, M.A. Reger, et al. Neurology 2010;74;1316-24.
This column, "Clinical Guidelines for Family Physicians," regularly appears in Family Practice News, an Elsevier publication. Dr. Skolnik is an associate director of the family medicine residency program at Abington (Pa.) Memorial Hospital. Dr. Lin is a first-year resident in the family medicine residency program at Abington Memorial Hospital.