"Dozing off" in the car and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in Parkinson’s disease: a survey of 125 patients

Carolina Sportelli; Karolina Poplawska-Domaszewicz; Corinne Borley; Vinod Metta; Valentina Leta; Kit Wu; Anna Sauerbier; Carlo Santoro; Salvatore Landolfo; Daniele Urso; Rosabel Chen; Yogini Chokeepermal-Naidu; Cristian Falup-Pecurariu; K. Ray Chaudhuri

doi:10.1007/s00702-025-02995-z

"Dozing off" in the car and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in Parkinson’s disease: a survey of 125 patients

Carolina Sportelli
, Karolina Poplawska-Domaszewicz
, Corinne Borley
, Vinod Metta
, Valentina Leta
, Kit Wu
, Anna Sauerbier
, Carlo Santoro
, Salvatore Landolfo
, Daniele Urso
, Rosabel Chen
, Yogini Chokeepermal-Naidu
, Cristian Falup-Pecurariu
, K. Ray Chaudhuri

King's College Hospital
King's College London
University of Medical Sciences Poznan
IRCCS Fondazione Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta - Milano
University of Cologne
University of Bari
Dementech Neuroscience Academic Centre
Transilvania University of Brasov

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease patients are at increased risk of road traffic and car accidents and those with excessive daytime sleepiness are specially susceptible. Abnormal scores on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale predicts risk for driving-related somnolence which may cause road traffic accidents in driving patients as many such patients declare dozing of while in a car. Our study estimates that over 40% of patients with daytime somnolence have risks of dozing off in a car. There is an association with dopamine agonist intake and depression and anxiety are commonly comorbid. Further prospective structured studies addressing driving, road traffic accidents and dopamine replacement therapies in PD are needed.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of Neural Transmission
Early online date	11 Sept 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-025-02995-z
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 11 Sept 2025

Keywords

Dashboard
Driving
Epworth sleepiness scale
Excessive daytime sleepiness
Parkinson’s disease
Stepped care
Sudden onset of sleep

Access to Document

10.1007/s00702-025-02995-z

Cite this

Sportelli, C., Poplawska-Domaszewicz, K., Borley, C., Metta, V., Leta, V., Wu, K., Sauerbier, A., Santoro, C., Landolfo, S., Urso, D., Chen, R., Chokeepermal-Naidu, Y., Falup-Pecurariu, C., & Chaudhuri, K. R. (2025). "Dozing off" in the car and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in Parkinson’s disease: a survey of 125 patients. Journal of Neural Transmission. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-025-02995-z

@article{8f9b7a7136c5472486a8e059cceeadbc,

title = "{"}Dozing off{"} in the car and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease: a survey of 125 patients",

abstract = "Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease patients are at increased risk of road traffic and car accidents and those with excessive daytime sleepiness are specially susceptible. Abnormal scores on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale predicts risk for driving-related somnolence which may cause road traffic accidents in driving patients as many such patients declare dozing of while in a car. Our study estimates that over 40\% of patients with daytime somnolence have risks of dozing off in a car. There is an association with dopamine agonist intake and depression and anxiety are commonly comorbid. Further prospective structured studies addressing driving, road traffic accidents and dopamine replacement therapies in PD are needed.",

keywords = "Dashboard, Driving, Epworth sleepiness scale, Excessive daytime sleepiness, Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease, Stepped care, Sudden onset of sleep",

author = "Carolina Sportelli and Karolina Poplawska-Domaszewicz and Corinne Borley and Vinod Metta and Valentina Leta and Kit Wu and Anna Sauerbier and Carlo Santoro and Salvatore Landolfo and Daniele Urso and Rosabel Chen and Yogini Chokeepermal-Naidu and Cristian Falup-Pecurariu and Chaudhuri, \{K. Ray\}",

year = "2025",

month = sep,

day = "11",

doi = "10.1007/s00702-025-02995-z",

language = "English",

journal = "Journal of Neural Transmission",

issn = "0300-9564",

publisher = "Springer",

}

Sportelli, C, Poplawska-Domaszewicz, K, Borley, C, Metta, V, Leta, V, Wu, K, Sauerbier, A, Santoro, C, Landolfo, S, Urso, D, Chen, R, Chokeepermal-Naidu, Y, Falup-Pecurariu, C & Chaudhuri, KR 2025, '"Dozing off" in the car and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in Parkinson’s disease: a survey of 125 patients', Journal of Neural Transmission. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-025-02995-z

TY - JOUR

T1 - "Dozing off" in the car and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in Parkinson’s disease

T2 - a survey of 125 patients

AU - Sportelli, Carolina

AU - Poplawska-Domaszewicz, Karolina

AU - Borley, Corinne

AU - Metta, Vinod

AU - Leta, Valentina

AU - Wu, Kit

AU - Sauerbier, Anna

AU - Santoro, Carlo

AU - Landolfo, Salvatore

AU - Urso, Daniele

AU - Chen, Rosabel

AU - Chokeepermal-Naidu, Yogini

AU - Falup-Pecurariu, Cristian

AU - Chaudhuri, K. Ray

PY - 2025/9/11

Y1 - 2025/9/11

N2 - Parkinson’s disease patients are at increased risk of road traffic and car accidents and those with excessive daytime sleepiness are specially susceptible. Abnormal scores on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale predicts risk for driving-related somnolence which may cause road traffic accidents in driving patients as many such patients declare dozing of while in a car. Our study estimates that over 40% of patients with daytime somnolence have risks of dozing off in a car. There is an association with dopamine agonist intake and depression and anxiety are commonly comorbid. Further prospective structured studies addressing driving, road traffic accidents and dopamine replacement therapies in PD are needed.

AB - Parkinson’s disease patients are at increased risk of road traffic and car accidents and those with excessive daytime sleepiness are specially susceptible. Abnormal scores on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale predicts risk for driving-related somnolence which may cause road traffic accidents in driving patients as many such patients declare dozing of while in a car. Our study estimates that over 40% of patients with daytime somnolence have risks of dozing off in a car. There is an association with dopamine agonist intake and depression and anxiety are commonly comorbid. Further prospective structured studies addressing driving, road traffic accidents and dopamine replacement therapies in PD are needed.

KW - Dashboard

KW - Driving

KW - Epworth sleepiness scale

KW - Excessive daytime sleepiness

KW - Parkinson’s disease

KW - Stepped care

KW - Sudden onset of sleep

U2 - 10.1007/s00702-025-02995-z

DO - 10.1007/s00702-025-02995-z

M3 - Article

C2 - 40931261

AN - SCOPUS:105016128036

SN - 0300-9564

JO - Journal of Neural Transmission

JF - Journal of Neural Transmission

ER -

"Dozing off" in the car and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in Parkinson’s disease: a survey of 125 patients

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this