Stimulants, antidepressants, anticipated changes

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Anonymous

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Is there any talk in the aviation community about the regulations on the aforementioned medication classes. These are now so widely prescribed and used with very little or no documented adverse reactions. It seems If someone has recognized a condition (non suicidal, violent, serious personality disorder etc) and treating it approximately they should be encouraged to seek a medical vs hiding it or getting off the medications.
 
Amongst the regular aviation minions, I haven't heard of any pending changes. Dr. Lou and Dr. Bruce are more plugged into info coming from CAMI that the rest of us, so hopefully they can comment.

However, I sincerely doubt there will be any changes.

1) The current SSRI protocol (of which Dr. Bruce was one of the main authors) is still pretty new in the scheme of things, and that was a long fight to get accepted. The two pathways are helping prospective airmen achieve medical certification. So what we have now is working. And from my perspective as a lay airman, there is no need to change.

2) This includes Pathway #2 which permits the airman to remain on a permitted medication as long as he/she satisfies other key criteria. Important to note is that the medication must be one of a short list that do not have side effects that are contra to flight safety (such as having a significant sedative effect). This permits your statement of "they should be encouraged to seek a medical" without the need of getting off of their medications.

3) Your question is somewhat non specific and more of a rant or pot stirring action than seeking specific help. If you want to tilt at aeromedical windmills on the forum, then you're free to exercise your typing (or thumbing) muscles. If your desire is a medical certificate while taking a "stimulant or antidepressant", then allow me to suggest that you proceed directly to Dr. Bruce or Dr. Lou or another difficult case AME who has a long success record for these applications. That action will achieve what you want. Whereas just ranting here will be like a toddler who just sits there in a soiled diaper who says, “I know it smells bad, but it’s warm and it’s mine.”

Best of luck to you.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Amongst the regular aviation minions, I haven't heard of any pending changes. Dr. Lou and Dr. Bruce are more plugged into info coming from CAMI that the rest of us, so hopefully they can comment.

However, I sincerely doubt there will be any changes.

1) The current SSRI protocol (of which Dr. Bruce was one of the main authors) is still pretty new in the scheme of things, and that was a long fight to get accepted. The two pathways are helping prospective airmen achieve medical certification. So what we have now is working. And from my perspective as a lay airman, there is no need to change.

2) This includes Pathway #2 which permits the airman to remain on a permitted medication as long as he/she satisfies other key criteria. Important to note is that the medication must be one of a short list that do not have side effects that are contra to flight safety (such as having a significant sedative effect). This permits your statement of "they should be encouraged to seek a medical" without the need of getting off of their medications.

3) Your question is somewhat non specific and more of a rant or pot stirring action than seeking specific help. If you want to tilt at aeromedical windmills on the forum, then you're free to exercise your typing (or thumbing) muscles. If your desire is a medical certificate while taking a "stimulant or antidepressant", then allow me to suggest that you proceed directly to Dr. Bruce or Dr. Lou or another difficult case AME who has a long success record for these applications. That action will achieve what you want. Whereas just ranting here will be like a toddler who just sits there in a soiled diaper who says, “I know it smells bad, but it’s warm and it’s mine.”

Best of luck to you.
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My apologies, no intent to stir the pot. I've just been doing a lot of reading regarding psych / quasi psychological diagnosis and was curious if any thing else was coming down-the-line. I was mostly intrested in the stimulants for ADD type behaviors And the disqualification that comes with that diagnosis years prior to a PPL medical .
 
Anonymous said:
Is there any talk in the aviation community about the regulations on the aforementioned medication classes. These are now so widely prescribed and used with very little or no documented adverse reactions. It seems If someone has recognized a condition (non suicidal, violent, serious personality disorder etc) and treating it approximately they should be encouraged to seek a medical vs hiding it or getting off the medications.
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Sounds like a party!

But legit NO, do NOT tell the FAA anything without legal counsel, no more than you’d think a cop was trying to “help” you.

Approach the FAA (and government overall) as a threat, because they are more of a threat than any gang banger or crack head.
 
James331 said:
Sounds like a party!

But legit NO, do NOT tell the FAA anything without legal counsel, no more than you’d think a cop was trying to “help” you.

Approach the FAA (and government overall) as a threat, because they are more of a threat than any gang banger or crack head.
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:rolleyes:

Come on James. That’s a bit extreme.
 
Stimulants - NO. Antidepressants - there are guidelines to permit taking one of 4 approved meds, all in the class called SSRI's.
 
Anonymous said:
My apologies, no intent to stir the pot. I've just been doing a lot of reading regarding psych / quasi psychological diagnosis and was curious if any thing else was coming down-the-line. I was mostly intrested in the stimulants for ADD type behaviors And the disqualification that comes with that diagnosis years prior to a PPL medical .
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I think you are referring to the incidents where a kid gets "diagnosed" as ADD/ADHD by someone who isn't properly qualified to do so, and fed medication for it. Correct? And now as an adult, must claim ADHD as part of their medical history even though the medication was discontinued long ago. And as an adult, you question if the "diagnosis" was accurate now that you have an interest in obtaining a medical certificate and starting pilot training. Correct?

The FAA views ADHD as a lifelong issue. Meaning that those who are properly diagnosed never are "cured" (in the sense that if tested again, there is no trace of the malady). Many folks with ADHD do develop coping mechanisms that permit them to become highly productive members of society, but if tested, they will still retain the ADHD diagnosis.

But for those who, as a child, were incorrectly diagnosed and never had ADHD at all, the FAA does provide a path to demonstrate this. The path includes some intensive testing by a neural psychologist to determine what (if any) cognitive deficits exist that would make an airman unsafe to perform pilot duties.

For more specific information....

We have been told that this testing is not for the faint of heart or wallet. It is intense. And it is not covered by insurance.

Hopefully this helped to answer some of your questions.
 
By the way, this topic has been discussed many times in the past years. Using the search function might help you find past threads that can also answer questions on ADHD and obtaining an FAA medical certificate.
 
Antidepressants:
Author, here, of the petition for the SSRI protocol, noted by Dr. Fowler.
NO changes.
Why? Google "Andreas Lubitz" and tell us what you find.

Stimulants:
Kevin, if that's you AGAIN, please, this is getting old. Six years' worth of old. It's not changing.
 
James331 said:
On this one no, legal counsel and don’t think of the feds are your “friend” sorry
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The one thing that always pops into my mind when I consider all the federal hoop jumping is this:

The FAA doesn't care if you can fly or not and actually they probably would prefer you didn't.

This is more specific to GA.
 
AggieMike88 said:
I think you are referring to the incidents where a kid gets "diagnosed" as ADD/ADHD by someone who isn't properly qualified to do so, and fed medication for it. Correct? And now as an adult, must claim ADHD as part of their medical history even though the medication was discontinued long ago. And as an adult, you question if the "diagnosis" was accurate now that you have an interest in obtaining a medical certificate and starting pilot training. Correct?

The FAA views ADHD as a lifelong issue. Meaning that those who are properly diagnosed never are "cured" (in the sense that if tested again, there is no trace of the malady). Many folks with ADHD do develop coping mechanisms that permit them to become highly productive members of society, but if tested, they will still retain the ADHD diagnosis.<snip>
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In fairness, it's not really the FAA's fault that various schools, parents, and mendacious psychiatrists use imaginary diagnoses to medicate kids (either to make them more manageable or for intellectual performance-enhancing purposes). The FAA pretty much has to take the position that what a board-approved doctor says is correct unless proven otherwise, and it seems hard to argue that real ADHD shouldn't be disqualifying. I get that it seems really unfair, but the FAA can't exactly say "oh, yeah, we ignore those childhood diagnoses because we know they're mostly BS." Even if everyone believes it, the solution is at the parent/school/child psychiatrist level, not the FAA level.
 
starglider said:
In fairness, it's not really the FAA's fault that various schools, parents, and mendacious psychiatrists use imaginary diagnoses to medicate kids (either to make them more manageable or for intellectual performance-enhancing purposes). The FAA pretty much has to take the position that what a board-approved doctor says is correct unless proven otherwise, and it seems hard to argue that real ADHD shouldn't be disqualifying. I get that it seems really unfair, but the FAA can't exactly say "oh, yeah, we ignore those childhood diagnoses because we know they're mostly BS." Even if everyone believes it, the solution is at the parent/school/child psychiatrist level, not the FAA level.
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This is correct. The problem is far more widespread than the FAA. These same issues can affect lots of other things such as firearms license, employment, and purchasing insurance. To answer the OP's question, no, the FAA isn't going to change because the FAA isn't the problem. The FAA cannot know among 100 people who take Ritalin which 5 are the real ADHD cases. It has to assume they all are until proven otherwise. There is a well established economic benefit structure in place involving these drugs and it's not going away any time soon.
 
@starglider ... I hear what your saying... but we've beaten on this dead horse 4 or 5 times this year already and more than that last year. And there isn't anything new from the FAA on the aeromedical policy topic in recent years nor are we hearing there will ever be any changes in the future.

If you want to catch up on past discussions, the search function will help you find the threads
 
AggieMike88 said:
@starglider ... I hear what your saying... but we've beaten on this dead horse 4 or 5 times this year already and more than that last year. And there isn't anything new from the FAA on the aeromedical policy topic in recent years nor are we hearing there will ever be any changes in the future.

If you want to catch up on past discussions, the search function will help you find the threads
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Ah, hrm . . . ? Do I have a doppelgänger somewhere? I’m neither the OP nor disagreeing with that. I was just saying that I think the FAA is being reasonable on this one; I don’t expect any changes either.
 
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