In the present pilot study the authors addressed the question of whether young people diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as children violate traffic regulations and are involved in traffic accidents more frequently than those in a control group without previous psychiatric disorders. The subjects in the ADHD group tended to be involved in traffic accidents more frequently than those in the control group. Furthermore, they had a significantly higher rate of involvement in traffic accidents before getting their driver's license. The two groups did not differ in the number of traffic violations, alcohol consumption or various attitudes related to driving. Split attention and reactive endurance were assessed with a computer-aided program. The ADHD group partly did significantly worse than the control group. Deficits on such performance measures and a lack of cognitive control in traffic may therefore be mediating factors for being accident-prone in traffic. Regardless of which group subjects were in initially, those reporting severe ADHD symptoms at the time of the study tended to be at an increased risk of causing traffic accidents and of being involved in more than one accident.
Samenvatting