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Turning In Your Car Keys - Knowing When to Do It When Parkinson's Interferes

With better medicine and technologies, people are living longer. That means, there are more and more older people on the roads behind the wheel of a car. While people are living longer, they are living longer with illnesses or chronic conditions like Parkinson's disease. The question is - what time are the car keys given up for good? This is a tough question whether you are the caretaker for someone with Parkinson's or have the disease itself.

How the Disease Affects Driving Skills

Many Parkinson's patients experience a slow decline in cognitive skills as well as motor coordination. These two deteriorating areas are not conducive to safe driving. Problems with spatial relationships are common in the disease and it is determining the spatial relationship on the road (i.e. how far ahead a car is in front of you, traffic lights and gauging exit ramps) is very important.

Mental clarity is important as well as it helps you make split second decisions behind the wheel that could help you avoid accidents. When there is mental confusion, accidents are inevitable and other people's behaviors on the road (i.e. honking horns and hand gestures) could only serve to aggravate the situation. The tremors and rigidity in the limbs can also affect driving and slow down reaction times. To avoid accidents behind the wheel, sometimes you have to move fast and Parkinson's disease can slow down those reaction times.

Side effects from Parkinson's disease medications such as dopamine agonists, levodopa and anticholinergics can affect your mental clarity and reactions behind the wheel. You may become sleepy, confused, bleary eyes or even dizzy while driving when taking these medications. Of course, not every person experiences the same side effects if any and different drug dosages can be adjusted as needed. However, you should be cognizant that some of the Parkinson's medications can affect the memory and cause confusion so they should be tried at a time when driving is not an issue.

Assessing your Driving Skills

If you are like anyone else with Parkinson's disease, you want to retain your independence as long as possible, so what is the ultimate in independence? Being able to drive! However, you have to take it upon yourself to be responsible enough to know if you cannot handle driving. And if you are not sure, you may have to contact the American Medical Association, one of the many Parkinson's disease foundations, AARP or any other entity that would have literature about driving under the influence of a disease. A lot of this literature has check lists to follow and gives you things to watch out for that you may not be aware of.

Talk with your doctor about your concerns on driving. Don't assume they will automatically tell you not to drive. They, along with therapists, may have exercises and therapy options for you to try to strengthen your driving skills at this critical time. Just think of others before you get behind the wheel of a car and decide if you can handle the responsibility if you caused an accident.