[Neurological diseases and driving]

Traffic accidents (TA) are, after heart disease, cancer and stroke, the fourth death cause among the general population. Although the number of AT caused by diseases-excluding alcoholism- seems to be reduced, interaction between organic pathology and functional ability increases the importance of this problem. This paper revises the literature on the relation between AT and specific neurological diseases: epilepsy, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (SAS), stroke, dementia and Parkinson disease. Also, the problems and the role of the neurologist in assessing driving ability in patients with brain damage is analyzed, with special reference to the legal condition in Spain. The insufficiency of diagnostic labels as predictors of driving ability is stressed; the group of patients affected by these pathologies does not present greater TA risk than young drivers twice that of the general population. In the cases of epilepsy, SAS and ECV, which can cause episodic driving inability, defining recurrence probabilities and finding regulation formulas is the task of clinical epidemiologists and the regulative authorities. In the case of dementia, Parkinson disease and ECV, causing psychomotor performance deterioration, the basic problem, complicated by the presence of comorbility in these patients, is the development of valid clinical scales for driving ability assessment. The regulative authorities need simple measures which are often difficult to develop. Meanwhile, it is the task of the neurologist, as part of the therapeutic intervention during the medical encounter, to discuss driving risks with each patient.