Citation

Zingg C, Puelschen D, Soyka M. Eur. Arch. Psychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 2009; 258(8): 491-498.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Assessing driving ability with neuropsychological tests tends to offer unclear results with regard to the patient's actual driving performance. This article reports on a study that compared neuropsychological test results and self-evaluation ratings between three groups: driving offenders with a psychiatric diagnosis relevant for driving ability (mainly alcohol dependence), driving offenders without such a diagnosis and a control group of non-offending drivers. The authors propose that the ability to compensate for cognitive deficits plays a crucial role in this context. Subjects were divided into two age categories (19-39 and 40-66 years). The hypothesis assumed that drivers with a psychiatric diagnosis relevant for driving ability and younger driving offenders without a psychiatric diagnosis would be less able to adequately assess their own capabilities than the control group. The test results showed that driving offenders with a psychiatric diagnosis showed poorer concentration, reactivity, cognitive flexibility and problem solving, and tended to overassess their abilities in intelligence and attentional functions, compared to the other two groups. Conversely, younger drivers rather underassessed their performance. The authors conclude with a brief discussion of the implications of their findings.

Language: en