Kingswells Medical Practice Clinicians will no longer prescribe sedatives (eg Diazepam or Temazepam) for patients who have a fear of flying.
Although emergencies are very rare in aviation, taking sedatives like diazepam reduces your awareness and reaction times. This risks you not being able to react to save your life if you have to escape the aircraft quickly. You may also put other people at risk by getting in their way or necessitating the help of another.
The use of these drugs can make you sleep in an unnaturally deep sleep. This means you won’t move around as much as during natural sleep so you will have a greater risk of getting a blood clot in the leg (deep vein thrombosis – DVT) or lungs (pulmonary embolus). Blood clots such as these can be dangerous and occasionally life-threatening. This risk is further increased if your flight is longer than 4 hours.
The prescribing guidance for doctors says that using diazepam (and similar medicines) to treat short-term ‘mild’ anxiety is inappropriate. They are recommended for short-term use for a ‘crisis in generalised anxiety’. But if you are having such a crisis you are not likely to be fit to fly. Fear of flying in isolation is not a generalised anxiety disorder.
What are the alternatives?
We kindly refer patients to the following resources from the aviation industry. These resources and courses are useful for people that still wish to fly and want to conquer their fear of flying.
easyJet www.fearlessflyer.easyjet.com
British Airways www.flyingwithconfidence.com
Virgin Atlantic https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/wellbeing-and-health/flying-without-fear.html