As a group, psychiatric patients present a higher incidence of road traffic accidents; nevertheless, certain diagnostic categories may account for the greater part of these risks: alcoholism, dementia, personality disorders and paranoid ideation of whatever origin. As for the rest, there is still a lack of conclusive studies. Even though on paper the majority of psychoactive drug cause disturbances in the psychomotor functions related to driving performance, it is not altogether clear whether this could be minimised when they are used on psychiatric patients whose level of risk without treatment may be even higher. On the other hand, the introduction of new molecules having lesser effect on psychomotor functions and interaction with alcohol, opens a door to improvement and prevention of road accident risk in psychiatric patients. (A)
Samenvatting