Research recently published in the journal Environmental Health found that hundreds of pilots currently flying commercial planes may be clinically depressed. Even worse still, researchers found that many of them may not seek treatment due to fears of negative career consequences (like being grounded).

From the article:
“Nearly 1,850 pilots participated in the anonymous, web-based survey conducted between April and December 2015 and led by Joseph Allen, senior author and an assistant professor of exposure assessment science at Harvard Chan School.
The new study comes just a year and a half after a depressed Germanwings co-pilot killed 150 people when he deliberately crashed a plane into the French Alps.”
For the study, Allen and his colleagues designed a survey with a mix of topics so as not to reveal that the study was actually focused on mental health. The team pulled standardized questions from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and included questions that doctors use to diagnose depression. Again, the survey was anonymous so that pilots knew their answers were confidential and couldn’t be traced back to them in any way.
Allen and his colleagues discovered that there were a “considerable number” of pilots suffering with symptoms of depression. Out of nearly 3,500 participants, 1,848 completed the questions about mental health:
  • 233 pilots — or 12.6% — met the criteria for likely depression.
  • Of 1,430 pilots who had worked within the past seven days, 193 — or 13.5% — met the criteria for depression.
  • Overall, 75 pilots (4.1%) reported having suicidal thoughts within the previous two weeks.
  • Depression was more likely among pilots who were victims of sexual harassment (36.4% among those experiencing harassment four or more times in the past week) or verbal harassment (42.9% among those experiencing harassment four or more times in the past week).
  • Pilots who used (higher levels) sleep aid medication also were more likely to be depressed.
In the future, researchers want to examine the risk factors for depression among pilots; they suspect the disrupted circadian rhythm and/or sleep disturbances may be part of the problem.
Now, airline travel is the safest mode of transportation in the world but this highlights an area where we are deficient and care for pilots needs to be improved. While the Federal Aviation Administration requires aeromedical examiners to evaluate the fitness of pilots, examiners do not diagnose mental health conditions.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced this summer that they will require medical examiners who screen commercial pilots to have more training so they can better identify warning signs of mental illnesses because commercial pilots STILL don’t need to undergo psychological testing. Perhaps THAT needs to change, too.

Source: CNN