People with Parkinson's disease, when tested on a driving simulator, had more collisions than healthy controls.

Since Parkinson's disease is linked to both motor and cognitive problems, it wouldn't be surprising if it affected a person's ability to drive. A new study from the University of South Florida seems to confirm this.

The researchers had a group of 39 patients perform on a driving simulator and compared them to a group of 25 controls, with no neurological disease. Of the Parkinson's group, seven said they had stopped driving because of lack of concentration, another ten said they were driving less. And 22 were driving as before they were diagnosed.

On the driving simulator, the Parkinson's patients had significantly more collisions. The more the disease had progressed, the more collisions they had. Further larger-scale studies of the effect of Parkinson's disease on driving skills are now needed so that guidelines for patients and their doctors can be developed.

Source

Neurology 10th December 2002