New guideline on when people with Alzheimer's disease should stop driving

April, 2010

The American Academy of Neurology has updated its guidelines on when people with dementia should stop driving. The guidelines support caregivers’ instincts, but not use of the patient’s own self-rating.

The American Academy of Neurology has updated its guidelines on when people with dementia should stop driving. While the guidelines point out that this decision is a complex one that should be made by a doctor using the Clinical Dementia Rating scale, they also supported caregivers’ instincts, which have been found to often be correct. For caregivers and family members, the following warning signs are identified:

  • Decreased miles being driven
  • Collisions
  • Moving violations
  • Avoiding certain driving situations, such as driving at night or in the rain
  • Aggressive or impulsive personality traits

However, the patient’s own self-rating, and a lack of situational avoidance, are not regarded as useful evidence.

Reference: 

Related News

Functional impairment good indicator of mild cognitive impairment

Following on from research showing that long-term meditation is associated with gray matter increases across the brain, an imaging study involving 27 long-term meditators (average age 52) and 27 controls (matched by age and sex) has revealed pronounced differences in white-matter connectivity be

Another study showing the value of exercise for preserving your mental faculties in old age.

It wasn’t so long ago we believed that only young brains could make neurons, that once a brain was fully matured all it could do was increase its connections. Then we found out adult brains could make new neurons too (but only in a couple of regions, albeit critical ones).

The brain tends to shrink with age, with different regions being more affected than others. Atrophy of the

A number of studies have demonstrated the cognitive benefits of music training for children. Now research is beginning to explore just how long those benefits last.

As we get older, when we suffer memory problems, we often laughingly talk about our brain being ‘full up’, with no room for more information. A new study suggests that in some sense (but not the direct one!) that’s true.

I commonly refer to ApoE4 as the ‘Alzheimer’s gene’, because it is the main genetic risk factor, tripling the risk for getting Alzheimer's. But it is not the only risky gene.

For the first time in 27 years, clinical diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease dementia have been revised, and research guidelines updated. They mark a major change in how experts think about and study Alzheimer's disease.

A long-term study of older adults with similar levels of education has found that those with the thinnest

Pages

Subscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest health newsSubscribe to Latest news