In the UK in one year over 25,000 vehicle licence holders will notify the Driver and Vehicles Licensing Agency (DVLA) of a medical condition affecting the brain. Despite the large number of drivers reporting a brian injury or illness to DVLA there are no standard validated set of criteria for assessing whether these drivers are subsequently fit to return to driving. This review forms an initial stage of a research programme set up by the Department of Transport to establish a standard validated protocol for assessing fitness to drive after brain injury or illness. The review aimed to critically review international research which has attempted to develop and validate assessment protocols and identify which areas require further research. Most research has concentrated on investigating whether neuropsychological tests scores are predictive of driving performance. The main findings of the review were that much of the research in this area is beset with methodological difficulties and therefore the relationship between neuropsychological ability and safe driving is unclear. The report concludes that there is a need for properly controlled experiments to help establish satisfactory normative criteria for assessing fitness to drive. (A)
Abstract