Assessing fitness to drive in older adults: Validation and extension of an economical screening tool.

Objectives: Due to demographic change, the number of older drivers with impaired driving skills will increase in the next decades. The current study aimed at the validation and extension of the screening tool Safety Advice For Elderly drivers (SAFE) that allows a cost-efficient assessment of driving-related risk factors in older drivers.

Method: Seventy-four older drivers aged ≥65 years (M = 77 years) recruited from the general population were included in this prospective observational study.

[From Risks to Ressources in Dementia and Depression of the Elderly - Cooperative Multiprofessional Treatment of a Couple in a Psychogeriatric Outpatient Department].

This case report provides insight into advantages of multiprofessional cooperation in the context of psychogeriatric treatment in a psychiatric outpatient department. Psychologist and psychiatrist also work as members of inpatient treatment teams und can thus resort to their intense expertise in treatment. Thus, a stepped treatment of a dementia patient and her husband suffering recidivating depression can be provided.

Avoidance Behavior Is an Independent Indicator of Poorer On-road Driving Skills in Older Adults.

Objectives: The aim of the current work was to investigate the relationship between avoidance of specific driving situations and on-road driving skills in older drivers considering factors found to be related to both avoidance behavior and driving skills.

Method: Seventy-two older drivers (M = 76 years) from the general population were included in this study. Self-reported avoidance behavior, driving practice, perceived driving difficulties, driving-related cognitive functions, as well as medical conditions were assessed within two sessions.

Advice for Elderly Drivers in a German Memory Clinic: A Case Report on Medical, Ethical and Legal Consequences.

We report on a 75-year-old female who consulted our Memory Clinic because of subjective memory complaints that she first recognized three months previously. Next to the standard detailed patient history, neuropsychological assessment, psychopathological status, the patient's driving history played an important role in the diagnostic process. In this case report, we illustrate the diagnostic process starting with the first consultation, including a short neuropsychological examination and communicating its results, reporting on further work-up (detailed neuropsychological assessment, MRI scan and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis) up to the final consultation, including advice for the patient.

Preliminary Validation of a Questionnaire Covering Risk Factors for Impaired Driving Skills in Elderly Patients.

Due to rather unspecific statutory regulations in Germany, particularly for patients with neurodegenerative disorders, many seniors still drive despite severe driving-related cognitive deficits. An accurate assessment of driving fitness requires immense financial, personnel and temporal resources which go beyond daily clinical routines. In cooperation with a working group from Switzerland, we therefore developed the questionnaire (SAFE), an economic instrument covering different risk factors for driving safety.