[Evaluating driving ability after brain damage. Neuropsychological diagnosis and driving test]

The study examined the validity of psychometric measures for the assessment of driving ability in brain-damaged subjects. 116 patients with brain damage mainly of vascular and traumatic origin underwent extensive neuropsychological examinations emphasizing attentional performance and visual perceptual speed and participated in a comprehensive on-road driving test. Only 58% of the patients passed the driving test. Attempts to predict the outcome of the driving test by discriminant analysis or cut-off procedures based on neuropsychological and/or other subject-related data yielded a maximum of 73% correct predictions. In view of the frequent impairment in driving ability after brain damage and in view of the failure to reliably predict driving ability from psychometric test results, it is recommended that in each case an on-road driving test is given.