Driven to Distraction

Hallowell, E. M., and Ratey, J. J. Driven to Distraction Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood to Adulthood. New York Pantheon Books, 1994. 

Her hospital and clinic charts disclosed that 2 years earlier, she had been treated for approximately 6 months with neuroleptics. The sensation she was describing had first been noted while she was taking the medication. I concluded that she probably had tardive akathisia, a subtle case that did not force her to move about. However, because she did not show external signs of the disorder, other physicians were reluctant to make the diagnosis. The patient felt driven to distraction and even to suicide, but after my diagnosis, she felt somewhat relieved. At last, a physician was taking her seriously and talking honestly to her. 

The Economist (2008). Driven to distraction Why autonomous cars are still a pip>e-dream. April 25, http //www. economist. com/node/111 13185. 

Strayer, D. L. and W. A. Johnston (2001). Driven to distraction Dual-task studies of simulated driving and conversing on a cellular phone. Psychol Set, 12,462-466. 

People and the jobs they do play an important safety role. Nowhere is this made more clear than in the study of aviation disasters, where, in more than two out of three cases, accident investigators are driven to conclude that human error played a major role (Edwards, 1988). These errors are not usually due to sudden illness, suicidal tendencies, wilful neglect or lack of basic abilities. More typically, they arise from temporary breakdown in skilled performance because, in many instances, system designers and managers have paid insufficient attention to human characteristics and skills, or not properly accounted for enviromnental stressors, workload and other reasonably foreseeable distractions. 

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