Dementia and driving─present status in JAPAN

Naoto Kamimura, Akie Fukushima, Yuriko Imajou

Department of Neuropsychiatry, Kochi University

Recently, dementia and driving came to attract attention in JAPAN. “Dementia” came to be subject to a constant driver's license limit, and they have prohibited from the traffic law revision of 2002. We examined a psychiatric problems of dementing drivers and association between their driving ability and the cognitive function from 1995 to 2011. From our research, many patients with dementia continued driving after a diagnosis and had already caused a traffic accident by a diagnosis of the dementia and caused a change in the driving behavior. In addition, we examined the differences of driving behavior in subtypes of dementia.

Address correspondence to Dr. Naoto Kamimura, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Kochi University (Oko-cho Kohasu, Nankoku, Kochi 783-8505, Japan)