BMJ 1995;310:885-886 (8 April)

Editorials

Epilepsy and driving

British regulations have recently been eased

Many countries restrict the issue of driving licences to people prone to epileptic seizures. Regulations are deemed necessary because research has repeatedly shown an increased rate of road traffic accidents (and accidental deaths) in drivers with epilepsy.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Ideally legislation should balance the excess risks of driving against the social and psychological disadvantage to people of prohibiting driving, but achieving this balance is difficult, and regulations vary widely among countries.8 In Britain the lifelong prohibition against driving enacted in the 1920s was changed in 1969 to permit those who had been free of seizures for at least three years to drive. In 1982 the seizure free period was reduced to two years (but remained at three years for people whose attacks occurred only during sleep). The law was later changed again, in January 1993 for vocational licences and in August 1994 for ordinary licences.

To . . . [Full text of this article]


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This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Sillanpaa, M., Shinnar, S. (2005). Obtaining a driver's license and seizure relapse in patients with childhood-onset epilepsy. Neurology 64: 680-686 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • Lings, S. (2001). Increased driving accident frequency in Danish patients with epilepsy. Neurology 57: 435-439 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • Zaidi, A., Clough, P., Cooper, P., Scheepers, B., Fitzpatrick, A. P. (2000). Misdiagnosis of epilepsy: many seizure-like attacks have a cardiovascular cause. J Am Coll Cardiol 36: 181-184 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • Krauss, G. L., Krumholz, A., Carter, R. C., Li, G., Kaplan, P. (1999). Risk factors for seizure-related motor vehicle crashes in patients with epilepsy. Neurology 52: 1324-1324 [Abstract] [Full text]  
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