COMPOUND NARCOLEPSY AS A SOURCE OF DRIVING AND OTHER ACCIDENTS

Narcolepsy is a neurological syndrome characterized by sleep attacks, cataplexy, sleep paralysis and vivid hypnogogic hallucinations manifested by people with poor night sleep and excessive daytime somnolence. It is evident that this condition interferes seriously with driving and other motor skills. Narcolepsy is not an uncommon condition; it is more common than a number of better known neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis and about a fifth as common as the general figure of 0.05% for epilepsy. This paper is based on a study performed to better document the association of narcolepsy with driving and other accidents by controlled and monotored questionnaires. A questionnaire was given to 50 narcolepsy-cataplexy patients of whom 27 were female and 23 male. The results showed that narcolepsy-cataplexy patients have a remarkably bad driving record. /Author/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Proceedings of Annual Meeting, 1976; sponsored by Medical Research Foundation of Canada.
• Corporate Authors:

  Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF)

  Ottowa, Ontario  Canada 
• Authors:
  • Broughton, R J
• Publication Date: 1976-10-6

Media Info

• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 255-273
• Serial:
  • Traffic Injury Research Foundation of Canada
  • Publisher: Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Driver performance; Driver records; Drivers; Highway safety; Narcolepsy; Neurology; Personnel performance; Questionnaires; Sleep; Traffic crashes
• Uncontrolled Terms: Motor vehicle accidents
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00153282
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Safety Council Safety Research Info Serv
• Report/Paper Numbers: Proceeding
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 20 1977 12:00AM