In the land of total motor car addiction, the United States, the situation is particularly confusing, which is why Dr Greg Krauss of Johns Hopkins Hospital's Epilepsy Centre in Baltimore set out to determine the facts. Well there's tremendous diversity in terms of the laws restricting driving for patients with epilepsy, ranging from life-long bans in driving for anyone who has had a seizure in Japan or Russia, to three months seizure restriction in Maryland, the State I live in. And in the US there's tremendous diversity amongst the fifty States with virtually fifty laws restricting epilepsy. In Europe they've recently, as part of the European union had a commission. There is a symposium sponsored in which they're trying to consolidate the laws into one year restrictions after a seizure.
Many countries are two years or have varying laws.
Yeah that's correct. Most of the laws are based on anecdote and just hunches about what may be a reasonable kind of restriction to avoid crashes due to seizures. It's clear that if you have a seizure while driving, there's a good chance you're going to crash. In France for instance there is a study showing over 50 per cent of patients who have a seizure behind the wheel crash. And presumably in the United States especially there is huge pressure to get back to driving since you are so automobile dependent.