The FAA on April 2 announced a new policy that will allow pilots taking medication for mild to moderate depression to obtain a special issuance medical certificate. Special issuances are needed for medical conditions that are not allowable for normal first-, second- and third-class medical certification of pilots. The new policy allows, on a case-by-case basis, pilots to fly “if they have been satisfactorily treated” on one of four selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) antidepressant medications for at least 12 months. The medications are Fluoxetine (Prozac), Sertraline (Zoloft), Citalopram (Celexa), or Escitalopram (Lexapro). The FAA will not take civil enforcement actions against pilots who take advantage of a six-month amnesty to share any previously non-disclosed diagnosis of depression or the use of these antidepressants.
The FAA’s action on allowing antidepressants mirrors what the agency did when it reached out to alcohol-dependent pilots. In the 1970s, the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) used a grant to perform the Human Intervention Motivation Study (Hims). The study resulted in development of a peer identification and referral program for alcohol-dependent pilots, which has since helped rehabilitate more than 3,500 airline pilots.
More In Regulations and Government
