PMID- 19882633
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20100315
LR  - 20151119
IS  - 1097-4598 (Electronic)
IS  - 0148-639X (Linking)
VI  - 41
IP  - 3
DP  - 2010 Mar
TI  - Driving with polyneuropathy.
PG  - 324-8
LID - 10.1002/mus.21511 [doi]
AB  - Polyneuropathy may result in pain, numbness, and weakness, which may in turn 
      affect driving ability. Medications used to treat neuropathic pain may alter 
      cognition, which may further affect driving. Although such impairments have 
      engendered questions about the driving safety in this group of patients, the rate 
      of motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) in patients with neuropathy has not been 
      studied rigorously. We surveyed patients with neuropathy from three medical 
      centers for reported accident rate, and we analyzed variables related to 
      increased risk for accidents compared to National Highway Traffic Safety 
      Administration data. Surveys from 260 subjects demonstrated that 40.6% were 
      involved in traffic accidents (0.11 accidents/year). Their accident rate was 10.8 
      MVAs per million vehicle miles traveled (MVA/MVMT), compared to 3.71 MVA/MVMT in 
      55-59-year-old drivers and 3.72 in 60-64-year-olds (National Highway Traffic 
      Safety Administration data). In all, 72.4% cited their neuropathy and 55.2% cited 
      their medications as playing a role in their accidents, and 51.6% changed their 
      driving habits after developing neuropathy. Independently, elevated levels of 
      pain, motor weakness, and ambulation difficulty met statistical significance for 
      increased MVA frequency. We conclude that accident frequency and discomfort with 
      driving are higher in neuropathy patients compared to age-matched national 
      statistics. However, most patients seem to change habits according to their 
      ability to drive; as such, driving issues should be addressed with caution and on 
      a case-by-case basis.
FAU - Cho, S Charles
AU  - Cho SC
AD  - Stanford University School of Medicine, Room A343, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, 
      California 94305-5235, USA. chos@stanford.edu
FAU - Katzberg, Hans D
AU  - Katzberg HD
FAU - Rama, Anil
AU  - Rama A
FAU - Kim, Byung-Jo
AU  - Kim BJ
FAU - Roh, Hakjae
AU  - Roh H
FAU - Park, Jongsoo
AU  - Park J
FAU - Katz, Jonathan
AU  - Katz J
FAU - So, Yuen T
AU  - So YT
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - United States
TA  - Muscle Nerve
JT  - Muscle & nerve
JID - 7803146
SB  - IM
MH  - Accidents, Traffic/*statistics & numerical data
MH  - Age Factors
MH  - Automobile Driving/*statistics & numerical data
MH  - Chi-Square Distribution
MH  - Data Collection
MH  - Electromyography
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - Neural Conduction/*physiology
MH  - Pain/physiopathology
MH  - Pain Measurement
MH  - Patient Selection
MH  - Polyneuropathies/*physiopathology
MH  - Surveys and Questionnaires
EDAT- 2009/11/03 06:00
MHDA- 2010/03/17 06:00
CRDT- 2009/11/03 06:00
PHST- 2009/11/03 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2009/11/03 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2010/03/17 06:00 [medline]
AID - 10.1002/mus.21511 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Muscle Nerve. 2010 Mar;41(3):324-8. doi: 10.1002/mus.21511.