FAA SSRI Special Issuance Timeline - Waiting
#13
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Oct 2013
Posts: 1,665
While the rule allowing SSRI's was implemented with good intentions, the ink was barely dry when the germanwings incident occurred.
Since then, the FAA has (somewhat understandably) been very slow to approve folks under that rule. Last I heard the number of approved pilots could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and I don't know if any were 1C.
The best path to certification appears to be to use SSRI's to get healthy and then learn to stay that way with lifestyle and perhaps cognitive therapy... it's easy to get certified if you're healthy and off SSRI's.
If you're looking at aviation as a primary career, ie you need the money, then planning to fly long term with SSRI's sounds risky. There may have been a germanwings type incident in the US recently, and that might cause the FAA to become even more restrictive.
I would suggest a professional aeromedical consulting service to help you with the process, although a good AME who really cares could probably accomplish the same.
Since then, the FAA has (somewhat understandably) been very slow to approve folks under that rule. Last I heard the number of approved pilots could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and I don't know if any were 1C.
The best path to certification appears to be to use SSRI's to get healthy and then learn to stay that way with lifestyle and perhaps cognitive therapy... it's easy to get certified if you're healthy and off SSRI's.
If you're looking at aviation as a primary career, ie you need the money, then planning to fly long term with SSRI's sounds risky. There may have been a germanwings type incident in the US recently, and that might cause the FAA to become even more restrictive.
I would suggest a professional aeromedical consulting service to help you with the process, although a good AME who really cares could probably accomplish the same.
#14
#15
Last I heard the FAA had approved only 200 Special Issuances for SSRIs EVER out of approximately 600,000 active pilots. That’s .003%.
Ever.
Of those SIs, there were about 50 special issuances for the approximately 160,000 airmen holding ATPs. That’s still about .003%.
Ever.
https://www.leftseat.com/psychiatric...certification/
If you don’t find those percentages depressing you may have been misdiagnosed. Either that or your SSRI is REALLY working well.
Ever.
Of those SIs, there were about 50 special issuances for the approximately 160,000 airmen holding ATPs. That’s still about .003%.
Ever.
https://www.leftseat.com/psychiatric...certification/
If you don’t find those percentages depressing you may have been misdiagnosed. Either that or your SSRI is REALLY working well.
#16
f
According to the American Psychological Association 12.7% of the US population over age 12 took SSRIs in the last MONTH:
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/11/numbers
Now those taking them were not evenly distributed, with twice as many females taking them as males and three times as many adult non-Black and non-Hispanics taking them as blacks or Hispanics and people over 60 somewhat over represented, and of course none of those stats give the number of either pilots or ATP holders taking the medication, but amongst the pilots and ATP holders themselves we certainly have a fair number of people who are Caucasians over sixty.
I don’t believe it is “nonsense” to say that 200 hundred total issuances for all pilots or 50 for ATP holders show that relative to the population one would EXPECT to meet criteria for taking SSRIs this is a rare event.
It isn’t “nonsense” to use the best statistics you can get which remains that out of that population, that demographic (total pilots and ATP holders) those are the stats you can get.
Are there pilots taking them and NOT reporting to the FAA? Almost certainly. Are there pilots who have reported taking them and applied for special issuances who have been denied them that are still reported in the denominators? Yes there are.
Is the pilot population somehow less depressed than the general population? Possibly, although you certainly wouldn’t know it from reading the APC forum. And for damn sure not the Atlas threads.
And in conclusion:
https://youtu.be/B65mtE2TN1w
#17
New Hire
Joined APC: Feb 2020
Posts: 3
Congrats man! Glad to hear it all worked out. This thread just reminded me how little most people actually know about a darn thing.
I just past month 8 waiting on an SI for SSRIs along with another issue, hoping it'll show up any day. Reading about your results gives me hope! Again congrats
I just past month 8 waiting on an SI for SSRIs along with another issue, hoping it'll show up any day. Reading about your results gives me hope! Again congrats
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