Epilepsy and driving: Local experience from Saudi Arabia

Introduction: The issue of epilepsy and driving has legal, social, and psychological implications. Many countries in the world restrict driving to people prone to epilepsy. There is no data from Saudi Arabia regarding the prevalence of driving among patients with epilepsy and their driving practices. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, there are no local laws or guidelines concerning driving for patients with epilepsy in Saudi Arabia. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of driving among male patients with epilepsy at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and determine the barriers and difficulties that they are suffering fromespecially when it comes to driving. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted between July 2017 and June 2018 at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The inclusion criteria of this studyweremale patientswith epilepsy 18 years of age or above. The exclusion criteriawere female patients at any age (since theywere not allowed to drive at the time of the study) and male patients less than 18 years of age. This study utilized a self-made self-administered 25-item questionnaire. Results: A total of 182 surveyswere distributed, and 164 individuals completed the survey (90.1% response rate). Most of the participants have a driving license (95.7%) and drive a car (98.8%). Almost all participants (99.4%) mentioned that nobody asked them whether they have epilepsy or not when issuing a driver's license. In addition, 94.5% were never told not to drive after the diagnosis of epilepsy. Regarding restrictions to driving, 98.7% reported that they drive at all times without any restrictions, and 92.7% reported that they drive both inside and outside the city. Conclusion: This study showed that the number of male patients with epilepsy driving cars was extremely high, accounting for almost all the patients in this study, withmost of themdoing severalwrong practices during driving. Other major issues include the lack of specific laws regulating driving for patients with epilepsy and no counseling from physicians about driving after the diagnosis of epilepsy. We recommend developing the Saudi driving regulations for patientswith epilepsy, and this study is considered an urgent call for action for the formation of a local driving regulations taskforce. Health education about the risk of driving should be disseminated, especially for patients with uncontrolled epilepsy. (c) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.