By Mark Sircus Ac., OMD
'The United States is lifting a 70-year-old ban on letting pilots fly while on antidepressants, citing improvements in the drugs and an unforeseen side effect of the restriction. Pilots who take one of four antidepressants — Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa or Lexapro — or their generic equivalents will be allowed to fly if they have been successfully treated by those medications for a year without side effects that could pose a safety hazard in the cockpit.
The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that about 9.5 percent of people 18 and older suffer from a mood disorder. A 2009 study by Columbia University showed that as many as 10 percent of Americans was taking antidepressants. FAA officials assume the percentage is about the same among pilots. In 2003, somewhere between 28 and 30 million Americans had already taken Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil or some similar SSRI antidepressant. These drugs are currently being prescribed for everything from depression or anxiety to PMS to smoking cessation to ADD.
A few years ago actor Tom Cruise brought to light one of the most dangerous problems we face today: An epidemic of legal mind altering drug use is now taking to the skies despite the known fact that a wide array of psychotropic drugs have been shown to increase suicide risks and potentially cause extreme violence in the users of these drugs.'
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