A drive control device and a drive control method for electric motors are capable of detecting a leakage current in a multilayer wiring board without providing a current sensor. The drive control device has an inverter circuit mounted on the multilayer wiring board, and a shunt resistor for detecting a bus current in the inverter circuit. The upstream and downstream wiring portions of the inverter circuit are disposed facing each other in neighboring layers of the multilayer wiring board, with insulating layers interposed therebetween. The multilayer wiring board has a sensing pattern layer which guides, to the shunt resistor, the leakage current flowing from the upstream wiring portion to the downstream wiring portion, and the presence or absence of leakage current is determined based on the current flowing through the shunt resistor during the period in which the regenerative current is generated in the electric motor.