Effects of Pain on Driving Performance and Cognition.

Most chronic pain patients engage in daily activities including driving. Driving a car is a complex task requiring mental alertness and a variety of cognitive functions such as perception, attention, learning, memory and decision making.Several studies have demonstrated cognitive impairments on laboratory tasks in patients with chronic pain, particularly on measures assessing attentional capacity, processing speed and psychomotor speed. These findings suggest that car driving performance might be impaired, and that chronic pain patients may therefore have an increased traffic accident risk. Unfortunately, no studies have investigated the impact of chronic pain on actual driving ability. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of chronic pain on actual driving performance during normal traffic. In addition to the on-the-road driving test, psychomotor, and memory tests measuring driving-related skills were conducted in the laboratory. Moreover, effects of pain on an attentional capacity test were tested using event-related potentials.