Accident experience and notification rates in people with recent seizures, epilepsy or undiagnosed episodes of loss of consciousness.

Collaborating neurologists provided a central office with clinical information, driving experience and accident rates in all drivers they counselled after diagnosing seizures or other unexplained episodes of loss of consciousness. Each patient received and was asked to return a notification slip to DVLA. Of 638 patients counselled, 11% had been involved as a driver in a road traffic accident in the previous year. Six patients had been involved in an accident producing serious injury. These estimates do not differ from those expected in a population of non-epileptic drivers with the same age and sex distribution. Of patients counselled, 27.1% returned a reply slip to the DVLA. Notification was more likely if the patient was aged 50 or over at the time of counselling, if the counselling was undertaken by a consultant, if an accident had occurred in the previous year and if the subject had also been advised to start or was already taking anti-epileptic drugs. Patients counselled after a single seizure were more likely to notify than those with a diagnosis of epilepsy.