The case-control design is very suitable when dealing with rare diseases and when many factors for the disease under study need to be evaluated, as is the case in determining the risk of driving under the influence of drugs. However, the methodology is hard to implement and there are many sources of potential bias that could affect the validity of the study results. Case-control studies are therefore not commonly used as a method to assess the risk of driving under the influence of psychoactive substances other than alcohol. The few studies that have been conducted vary in study design, which makes it very hard to compare their outcomes. In 2006 a consensus meeting was organised by the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS) to develop standards for future research. These recommendations for standardized research include legal/ethical issues, subject and study design issues, and core data parameters. (Author/publisher)
Abstract