DGT Denies 35 Medical Conditions for Driver Licenses in 2025

The DGT will require a medical report to renew the license in 2025

The list includes 35 entries and makes no distinction between a kidney transplant and an ADHD diagnosis. Starting in 2025, Spain's Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT) aims to replace the ten-minute renewal process with a medical report certifying that the applicant poses no risk while driving. The agency's criterion: physical and mental health status.

The fine print has triggered alarms. Conditions that would prevent license renewal include Alzheimer's, epilepsy, ALS, sleep apnea, depression, ADHD, OCD, hypothyroidism, insulin-dependent diabetes, kidney transplants, pacemakers, defibrillators, and any oncological, respiratory, digestive, or endocrine disease. That is significant.

What changes in license renewal from 2025

The DGT justifies the strictness with an argument repeated annually: diseases and their treatments are behind many accidents, and any side effect of a pill can become a problem on the road. Based on this, the agency wants applicants to submit a medical report proving they have no risk before renewing.

This is the controversial point. The list groups ALS patients with ADHD diagnoses, transplant recipients with hypothyroidism. Most of these conditions are not directly related to driving ability, and the broad wording would exclude a significant portion of drivers. According to one participant's calculation, just the first filter would remove 10% of drivers from circulation.

Transplants, cancer, and 18 years of hypothyroidism behind the wheel

Specific cases contradict the theory. An ambulance driver works daily with a kidney transplant. The father of a former classmate, a dentist, received a heart and four or five weeks later arrived with his Mercedes. People who have had cancer and continue driving are numerous in close circles, and heart attack survivors, many more. Someone with hypothyroidism for over 18 years not only drives: they already renewed their license with that condition included in a previous list.

The most detailed account comes from a driver who underwent chemotherapy. During the examination, he declared the treatment and had his license provisionally withdrawn. Three months after finishing, he returned with his oncologist's certificate and got it back, albeit for only one year. The next renewal gave him five. His conclusion: staying silent would have been more comfortable, but he risked having insurance cover nothing. That is the trap of the entire system.

Who accesses the medical history and what happens with insurance

The question no one answers clearly is operational. Where does the recognition center get each driver's medical history? What value does a private doctor's report have if public health records are not cross-referenced? On paper, the file is confidential. In practice, anyone who has applied for a mortgage knows how this works: to buy life insurance, you must submit reports, and there is no secret that holds. The fine print of the policy may become the true regulator of the license.

The economic fallout is as frightening as the health impact. If you cannot drive, in thousands of towns you cannot work. A driver with a listed condition not only loses mobility: they lose access to their profession. Hence the recurring question: will there be a benefit for those who lose their license by medical prescription? One driver notes his father just renewed at 89 years old, showing how much margin the system currently has before tightening.

The list's gaps: benzodiazepines and vision problems

It is striking that the two most cited factors are missing. Benzodiazepines — widely used anxiolytics and sleeping pills — reduce reflexes and prolong reaction time, yet they do not appear anywhere. Vision problems are also absent, despite myopia of 14 diopters affecting driving more than treated snoring. The list focuses on psychiatric diagnosis and chronic illness, leaving out what is measured with a device.

Agenda 2030, Overton effect, and the license as a permit

Various readings circulate about the announcement going far beyond health. Some say this is the first step to empty roads by decree, that minor illnesses open the Overton window and that constipation will next become grounds for withdrawal. These are unproven interpretations mixing this measure with unrelated energy debates, which do not fit the known text. The reality, less flashy, is that the license is a permit: granted and revocable.

The final text will likely be trimmed: a handful of serious conditions, mandatory medical reports, and the rest converted to recommendations for doctors. It may even be applied loosely in the first years. What will not change is the deterrent effect on those who currently drive with a pacemaker and tomorrow wonder if they must argue their case before an official.