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Harvard Study: Hundreds of Depressed and Suicidal Pilots Afraid to Seek Help

An academic survey found that a large number of professional aviators avoid getting treatment for depressive and suicidal symptoms solely out of the fear of damaging their careers.

A new paper published in The Journal of Environmental Health contends that an alarming number of commercial airline pilots admit to having avoided treatment for serious mental health issues, including depression and suicidal thoughts due to concerns that seeking help might have adverse effects on their aviation careers. A blind survey of 3485 professional pilots found that nearly 14 percent of those who completed the entire survey met the threshold for depression and more than 4 percent of the aviators in a subset of the survey admitted to flying during a period in which they had “reported having suicidal thoughts.”

The just-published, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health study, “Airplane Pilot Mental Health and Suicidal Thoughts: a cross-sectional descriptive study via anonymous web-based survey” conducted by Alexander C. Wu et al, concluded that “hundreds of pilots currently flying are managing depressive symptoms perhaps without the possibility of treatment due to the fear of negative career impacts.” While admitting that the results of the study may not be indicative of the industry as a whole, the authors urgently recommended that “airline organizations increase support for preventative mental health treatment.”

The study cites the tragic case of GermanWings Flight 9525 as reason enough to take a critical look at the mental health of flight crews around the globe. In future studies, the survey’s authors promise to take a closer look at causes of depression such as sleep and circadian rhythm disturbances that may uniquely affect commercial pilots.

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