United States – Young people with anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder will typically experience greater difficulty in getting their driver’s license, the result of research evinces.
Mood disorders
Teens and youngsters with this kind of mood disorder are 30% more likely to avoid a driver’s license than their peers who have no mood disorder; researchers provide the evidence in their article in the JAMA Network Open issue dated April 8, 2023, as reported by HealthDay.
Fluctuations in the mood of youths with mood disorders are connected to a two times higher risk of losing their license and a slightly higher risk of destroying a vehicle, – discovered the researchers.
“Our results indicate that newly licensed youths with mood disorders have a greater risk of crashing than other young drivers, but that this is a manageable risk,” said senior researcher Allison Curry, an associate professor of pediatrics with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Center for Injury Research and Prevention.
Indeed, the rate of mood disorders is as high as one in ten among the age group of teens and young adults, researchers noted in the background information.
Many of these disorders arise in the age group, which is old enough to learn how to drive, pointing out the fact. Nevertheless, it is important to note that driving skills, such as focus, memory, and motor coordination, are significantly affected in people with mood disorders.
The research was performed through a comparison of about 1,900 young adults with mood disorders to more than 84,000 teenagers who didn’t have mood disorders, but all of whom were eligible to get their licenses.
To investigate the potential impact of mood conditions on driving, they connected the youths’ electronic health data to crash and driver licensing information from New Jersey.
They discovered that teenagers with mood disorders had a far lower chance of obtaining a license.
Among teens and young adults, “Obtaining your driver’s license is a feeling of freedom that makes you excited, but the study’s results showed that those with mood disorders are 30% less likely to acquire a driver’s license than those of their peers without mood disorders,” explained by the lead researcher, Dr. Christopher Gaw, pediatric emergency medicine doctor, from Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, He did the examination when he was there at CHOP.
Increased risk of crashes
They have also noted that there is a 16% increased risk of crashes when someone receives their license within a year and the risk increases by 19% within the first four years.
While adolescents with mood disorders had nearly twice as much suspension of their driver’s licenses, as well as being at risk of being involved in alcohol-related crashes and moving violations more often, as reported by HealthDay.
Evidence-based training
“Our findings point to the need to develop evidence-based training and education for adolescents and young adults with mood disorders who want to drive,” Curry said in a CHOPS news release.