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However, some of the people who submitted comments to the FAA on the new policy thought the agency should open up the friendly skies to more psychotropic drug use. For instance, on June 16, 2010, a person commenting under the name, Anonymous, told the FAA: "This review should be expanded to include ADHD medications."
"Many pilots are diagnosed as having ADHD and take medication to assist them. Many of the medications used today to assist adults are derivatives of drugs issued to military pilots to remain alert during missions," Anonymous said. "I strongly encourage the FAA to review the use of ADHD medication so the pilots using medications to manage their symptoms can finally come out of the shadows."
On June 23, Gregorio Guillen wrote and asked: "How about those pilots wanting to take prescription low dose Sertraline to treat premature ejaculation and not necessarily depression?"
Gregorio wants to whether they "are going to be affected by this rule?"
A pilot named, Paul Reed, asked the FAA to: "Please consider allowing migraine treatments with anti-depressants to be included in this rule," on June 17.
But on the other hand, on June 17, Patric Barry wrote: "If the pilot population is permitted to use such medication, the temptation to increase the dose when a pilot is feeling "a little off" is too great a risk - to amend the rules to allow an inch, some pilots will feel compelled to take a mile."
"That is simply an unacceptable risk to the general population and passengers relying on the stability of the pilot group to safeguard and protect public safety," he told the FAA.
Dr Jeffrey Welker also believes it is "a bad idea to allow individuals being treated for depression with medications to hold a current valid medical," and "we should be looking very close at these individuals after treatment for mental stability."
"I base this opinion on my professional and personal observations of 25 years in practice," he said in a comment on June 25.
All of the comments submitted can be found by going to the FAA's Regulations and Policies Web page.
SSRIs Impair Roadways
It makes no sense to put planes full of people at risk by allowing pilots to fly on SSRIs when a study as far back as December 2006, in the "Journal of Clinical Psychiatry," reported that about seven out of every ten people who take antidepressants have impaired driving ability in a car, and 16% have severe motor impairments.
In addition, "reckless driving is one of the most commonly reported adverse effects of antidepressants," Dr Breggin reports.
"After taking antidepressants, disinhibited, agitated or angry drivers find themselves exploding into road rage or using their cars as instruments of suicide," he says. "This is one of the first antidepressants reactions that clinicians like myself began noticing soon after Prozac hit the marketplace."
In his book, "Medication Madness," Dr Breggin describes how an ordinarily calm, model citizen became suicidal on Paxil and drove his car into a helpless policeman in order to knock him over and get his gun so the man could kill himself with it. Although the man seriously injured the cop, he failed to get the gun.
In another case, a man described as kind and gentle turned psychotic while on Zoloft and drove his automobile into a barrier in attempt to kill his passenger wife because he believed her body was harboring an alien beast that wanted to destroy him and all of humanity.
