Background: Since the early 1980s, there has been much debate about whether
shallow water diving may lead to long-term adverse effects on the nervous
system. Hypothesis: The aim of the study was to investigate possible neurop
sychological effects from repeated diving in divers without overt neurologi
cal insult. Methods: Twenty construction divers recruited from two companie
s of contractors were tested with a neuropsychological test battery in a cr
oss-sectional study. The divers were on average 40 (range 24-54) yr old. Th
ey had worked as divers for an average of 18 (range 5-33) yr. Their mean di
ving experience was more than 4000 (range 450-13200) dives. A group of youn
ger trainees at a diving school and a group of age-matched construction wor
kers were recruited as controls. Results: The construction divers did not s
how clinical signs of mental impairment. However, their neuropsychological
test results indicated slight effects in the form of longer reaction time.
Conclusions: The main finding in this study of non-saturation construction
divers was that there was no clear evidence of neuropsychological deficit d
ue to extensive diving experience. However, it is suggested that the prolon
ged reaction time can be ascribed to extensive non-saturation diving.