New study assessed the pilots' mental health with a focus on depression and suicidal thoughts and found that airline pilots may be clinically suffering from depression and some even report having suicidal thoughts.
The findings conducted by the research team from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the US, published in journal of Environmental Health, came 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.
Depression Symptom Evaluation
Depression occurs due to alterations in the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain.
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‘Depression was more likely among airline pilots who used higher levels of sleep aid medication and those who were experiencing sexual or verbal harassment.’
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"We found that many pilots currently flying are managing depressive symptoms and it may be that they are not seeking treatment due to the fear of negative career impacts," said senior study author Joseph Allen. "There is a veil of secrecy around mental health issues in the cockpit. By using an anonymous survey, we were able to guard against people's fears of reporting due to stigma and job discrimination," Allen added. For the study, out of nearly 3,500 who participated in the survey, 1,848 completed the questions about mental health.
They found that within this group, 233 met the criteria for likely depression, and 75 reported having suicidal thoughts within the previous two weeks. Of 1,430, who reported working as an airline pilot in the last seven days at the time of the survey, 193 met the criteria for depression. A greater proportion of male pilots than female pilots reported that they had experiences "nearly every day" of loss of interest, feeling like a failure, trouble concentrating, and thinking they would be better off dead.
![Suicide]( "Suicide")
Suicide is an act of ending one's own life and it usually results from emotional isolations and inability to adjust and cope with one's environment.
Female pilots were more likely than male pilots to have at least one day of poor mental health during the previous month, and were more likely to have been diagnosed with depression. "Our study hints at the prevalence of depression among pilots--a group of professionals that is responsible for thousands of lives every day--and underscores the importance of accurately assessing pilots' mental health and increasing support for preventative treatment," said Alex Wu, a doctoral student at Harvard Chan School and first author on the paper.
Source: ANI
Suicide
Suicide is an act of ending one's own life and it usually results from emotional isolations and inability to adjust and cope with one's environment.
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Female pilots were more likely than male pilots to have at least one day of poor mental health during the previous month, and were more likely to have been diagnosed with depression. "Our study hints at the prevalence of depression among pilots--a group of professionals that is responsible for thousands of lives every day--and underscores the importance of accurately assessing pilots' mental health and increasing support for preventative treatment," said Alex Wu, a doctoral student at Harvard Chan School and first author on the paper.
Source: ANI
Quiz on Depression
The World Health Organization reports that depression is one of the main causes of disability affecting about 121 million people worldwide. More tragically, it claims around 850,000 lives every year. Hence, it is important that we understand this affliction to help ourselves or our loved ones to cope and, hopefully, resolve it. How well do you know the facts about depression? Take this quiz and f
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 Cancer Survivors Below the Age of 25 Have Twice the Risk of SuicideThe risk of suicide is more prevalent in survivors of brain tumours, leukaemia, bone and soft tissue sarcomas and testicular cancer. | Advertisement
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