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Automobile driving in Huntington's disease
Author(s) -
Rebok George W.,
Bylsma Frederick W.,
Keyl Penelope M.,
Brandt Jason,
Folstein Susan E.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
movement disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.352
H-Index - 198
eISSN - 1531-8257
pISSN - 0885-3185
DOI - 10.1002/mds.870100611
Subject(s) - driving simulator , cognition , medicine , disease , huntington's disease , poison control , physical medicine and rehabilitation , psychology , psychiatry , medical emergency , simulation , engineering
We assessed the influence of the neurological and cognitive impairments of Huntington's disease (HD) on automobile driving. In a group of 73 HD outpatients, 53 (72%) continued to drive after illness onset. Those no longer driving had more severe symptoms than those still driving. Twenty‐nine HD patients who were still driving and 16 healthy control subjects underwent a clinical examination, a cognitive examination, a driving‐simulator assessment, and completed questionnaires about driving history and habits. HD patients performed significantly worse than control subjects on the driving‐simulator tasks and were more likely to have been involed in a collision in the preceding 2 years (58% of HD vs. 11% of control subjects). Patients with collisions were less functionally impaired but had slower simple reaction time scores than did those without collisions. HD patients are at increased risk for accidents, but patients who have accidents are not easily distinguished from those who do not.