Clinical Notes Hypoglycemia and Safe Driving

Hypogl ycemia and hypoglycemia unawareness is a real issue for diabetic patients and a real challenge for their health care providers. This review addresses the issue of road traffic accidents and drivers with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM ) exploring the effects of hypoglycemia, its awareness state and the appropriate response by the driver and the doctor under such circumstances. The regulations surrounding this issue are also briefly discussed. This is a simulation of a diabetologist's evidence in court. A diabetologist had been called to be an expert witness in a trial of a young man with T1DM who was accused of causing death by dangerous driving. Give a short but clear outline of the physiological and psychological effects of hypoglycemia linking it to the relevant literature. This paper addresses hypoglycemia, medico-legal aspects and looks into the legislation in different countries in relation to diabetes and driving. It presents itself as a pocket manual for giving evidence in court. Recently the effects of hypoglycemia on mental status and the issue of relationship between diabetes and driving have been raised for discussion. Investigations into the effect of glucose on the performance have been conducted in humans. Some studies explored the effect of glucose on learning, memory and mood in school children, attention, memory and decision making in college students, and memory in adults. Benton et al. provided a useful overall review of the effect of blood glucose on cognitive functioning