Study: 1 in 8 Pilots May be Depressed

Hundreds of commercial airline pilots worldwide may be flying with untreated depression because they fear being grounded or losing their jobs, a new survey suggests.


The anonymous survey of about 1,850 pilots from more than 50 countries found that 14 percent of pilots who had worked within the past week had symptoms of depression. Four percent of pilots reported having suicidal thoughts within the past two weeks.
The survey offers one of the first snapshots of mental health among commercial pilots, who often don't disclose this type of illness to airline officials or aviation regulators because they fear negative career repercussions, said senior study author Joseph Allen, a public health researcher at Harvard University in Boston.
"It's understandable that pilots are reluctant to fully disclose mental health issues because of the potential that they will be grounded or declared not fit for duty," Allen told Reuters Health by email.


With roughly 140,000 active pilots flying more than 3 billion people worldwide each year, the survey results should put the airline industry on notice that many pilots need better access to mental health screening and treatment, Allen added.
The new findings come a year and a half after a Germanwings co-pilot who suffered from depression deliberately crashed a plane into the French Alps, killing 150 people. :(

Globally, roughly 350 million people suffer from depression. Effective treatments exist, but many people don't get them - often due to stigma.
To get a better picture of mental health among airline pilots, researchers conducted an anonymous online survey between April and December of 2015. Questions touched on a range of topics related to work and health in addition to depression.
Most respondents came from the U.S., Canada and Australia.