What are the effects of chronic pain on driving during normal traffic? That’s the topic of this study from the Netherlands.
Many people think that when someone has pain every day they get used to a certain amount of discomfort. It no longer affects the way that person performs including driving a car. However, several studies have shown problems with attention and speed control in the lab when testing patients with chronic pain. Other studies show no such problems.
In this study two groups of people were included. The first group (14 subjects) of healthy adults were the control group. The second group of 14 patients had nonmalignant pain rated as “moderate” and lasting at least three months. All participants took an on-the road highway driving test. They also took tests in a lab of IQ, memory, and tracking skills.
The results of this study show a lower IQ for pain patients and worse highway driving performance. The analysis of the data didn’t show a link between these two results. Tests for depression and coping showed no differences between the two groups. Pain patients reported a lower quality of life compared to healthy subjects.
Overall chronic pain patients showed impaired driving skill similar to what is seen in healthy adults with a blood alcohol level of 0.08 percent. This is enough to increase the risk of causing an accident by three times the normal number. Memory and attention are affected the most by alcohol or pain.
The authors conclude pain does affect driving ability. The level of pain (mild, moderate, severe) doesn’t seem to make a difference. More studies are needed to find out which pain patients are affected most and the difference in performance between highway and city driving.