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Joy - Mark's description of Margaret's driving her cart very much echoes what Dick (52/15) experiences when driving a car. Although he has better days and worse days, he has all of the following some percentage of the time: (1) delayed response time, causing him to initiate a turn or a stop too late. I believe at least part of this can be attributed to bradyphrenia (slow thinking), and not simply delayed reactions due to strictly physical causes. I believe it's a related phenomenon that he doesn't always detect clues that would normally indicate that he needs to be prepared to stop. For example, there might be a "road work ahead" sign, followed by a sign showing two lanes of traffic merging into one. The traffic begins merging, with brake lights going on progressively throughout a whole line of cars. To the average driver, that constitutes a lengthy string of clues that one needs to be prepared to slow down or stop. Yet there have been many times that he seemed totally surprised at the slow-down, and ended up needing to stop abruptly to avoid running into the car ahead of him. (2) "fugue" episodes, which he describes as just "drifting off." He can appear to be looking directly at an oncoming car or roadside obstacle and yet continue steering right toward it. Usually my calling his name (or screaming) is what alerts him and brings him back to reality. (3) difficulty keeping the car within his lane. He commonly veers into the adjoining lanes and seems surprised if someone honks at him. (4) spatial judgement problems - may be related to the above. He occasionally runs over curbs, and when having to park between parallel lines in a parking lot, finds it almost impossible to do. He usually parks partly in the next stall, and at an angle. I believe his tendency is to turn too quickly. I wish I could say that we could attribute his worst days to the state of his medication on that day, but there's nothing clear-cut about when he's going to have the most difficulty. There are some days when he says he feels "Parkinsonian," which I have begun to believe is a result of lowered dopamine balance in his body. On those days, he will opt not to drive at all. An additional tip for your seminar, Joy: One of the most difficult things to do is to get over the hurdle of persuading a PWP that he should no longer drive. I got some good tips from the CAREnet some time ago. About the only way we've been able to handle it is "one day at a time." I can just walk to the car and pleasantly state, "I'll drive," and he seems okay with that most of the time. However, what didn't work was to try to discuss whether he should be driving at all, or to suggest any restriction that sounded permanent. He does still drive on short errands around town on his good days, but I also make sure I ride with him sometimes on those errands so I can assess his driving ability. For now, we're going to continue going on a day-by-day basis. I'm glad you're offering this seminar. It's one of the most difficult issues to contend with in PWP, I believe. Margie Swindler, cg for Dick, 52/15 [log in to unmask]