ASSESSMENT OF DRIVING ABILITY AFTER BRAIN-DAMAGE - NEUROPSYCHOLOGICALEXAMINATION AND ON-ROAD DRIVING TEST

The study examined the validity of psychometric measures for the asses sment of driving ability in brain-damaged subjects. 116 patients with brain damage mainly of vascular and traumatic origin underwent extensi ve neuropsychological examinations emphasizing attentional performance and visual perceptual speed and participated in a comprehensive on-ro ad driving test. Only 58% of the patients passed the driving test. Att empts to predict the outcome of the driving test by discriminant analy sis or cut-off procedures based on neuropsychological and/or other sub ject-related data yielded a maximum of 73% correct predictions. In vie w of the frequent impairment in driving ability after brain damage and in view of the failure to reliably predict driving ability from psych ometric test results, it is recommended that in each case an on-road d riving test is given.