Relationship between neuropsychological tests and driver's license renewal tests in Parkinson's disease

Objective: To determine whether the standard Spanish driving test (ASDE test) was able to identify patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) at risk of unsafe driving and to examine the relationship between the ASDE test and the Useful Field of View (UFOV) as well as with a battery of neuropsychological tests in drivers with PD.

Methods: Thirty-seven patients with PD and 33 controls matched by age and education level were included in an observational study. All participants were active drivers and patients with PD underwent study procedures after taking the medication in the “on” period. Subjects with a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score ≤ 24 were excluded. Neuropsychological tests (Repeatable Battery for Neuropsychological Status RBANS], Trail Making Test TMT-A and -B], and Block Design test), driving performance tests (ASDE Driver Test and UFOV), and daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale) were assessed.

Results: The PD group performed significantly worse than healthy controls in the ASDE Motor Coordination tests. No significant differences were observed in anticipation speed, multiple reaction time, concentrated attention, and resistance to monotony. All participants successfully completed the UFOV tests. Statistically significant differences between patients with PD and controls were found in processing speed (UFOV1; P =.03) and more patients with PD were found in the categories of higher driving risk levels (P =.03). In addition, patients with PD showed worse scores than healthy controls in visuospatial capacities (Line Orientation), psychomotor speed (Coding and TMT-A), memory (List Recognition, Story Recall), and executive function (TMT-B). The driving tests (ASDE and UFOV) showed a low sensitivity and a high specificity but a higher percentage of patients in the PD group failed in multiple reaction time, concentrated attention, and resistance to monotony. In addition, 18.9% of patients with PD showed a cutoff of 4 for UFOV risk. In the discriminant analysis, Line Orientation (visuospatial/constructive domain) and Figure Recall (delayed memory) were found to be statistically significant with a rate of correct classification of unsafe drivers with PD of 78.2%. In addition, normal results on the Line Orientation item were associated with a 1.5 times higher probability of non-risky driving in the multivariate analysis.

Conclusions: At early stages of the disease, about 19% of patients with PD showed difficulties that may affect their driving capabilities. Line Orientation and Figure Recall are useful to alert clinicians to the risk of unsafe driving. For this reason, patients with PD should be evaluated for driving abilities more regularly to determine the extent of deficits that may influence driving performance.