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Postal survey of psychiatrists' knowledge and attitudes towards driving and mental illness

The Department of Psychology, Hammersmith Hospital, 150 DuCane Road, London W12 0HS

James P. Watson

Guy's, King's and St Thomas', Department of Academic Psychiatry, Thomas Guy House, St Thomas Street, London SW1 9RT

AIMS AND METHOD

We assessed psychiatrists' knowledge and attitudes towards the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) regulations concerning mental illness. A postal survey of all consultant and trainee psychiatrists (228) on the South Thames (East) regional psychiatry rotation was carried out.

RESULTS

For category 1 (private car and motorcycles) licenses, 40.0% of psychiatrists could correctly advise patients with a bipolar affective disorder; this figure was 0% for schizophreniform disorders. For category 2 (heavy goods vehicles) licenses the corresponding figures were 13.2% and 11.8%, respectively.

For alcohol misuse, alcohol dependency and alcohol related disorders, the scores were 26.0%, 29.1% and 19.7%.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Psychiatrists fail to know or apply existing DVLA regulations, for a number of reasons. Failure to inform patients of the restrictions and to record this may result in medico-legal liability for practitioners.

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