Am J Psychiatry 1982; 139:1049-1051
Copyright © 1982 by American Psychiatric Association
Driving phobia in the city of Houston: a pilot study
RJ Mathew, ML Weinman, KM Semchuk and BL Levin
To study the fear of driving phenomenon the authors contacted 48 subjects
who, in response to a newspaper article, had expressed an intense fear of
driving in the city of Houston and compared them with an age- and
sex-matched control group. The information elicited from the subjects
suggested the existence of a driving phobia. No significant differences
emerged between the phobic subjects and the controls on relevant driving
history and background. Although the phobic subjects reported significantly
higher levels of anxiety while driving in normal and difficult situations,
most of them reported anxiety of phobic intensity only about difficult
driving situations, such as driving on freeways and in congested traffic.
