Fear of Flying Policy

Fear of flying is type of phobia called aerophobia abd it is believed 1 in 10 people suffer from this. As a type of phobia there are some recognised and evidence based ways of treating this outlined in the link below:

• How to manage a fear of flying and flying anxiety 

Requests for medication for Fear of Flying 

We have concerns around using sedating medication in patients who are nervous about flying.

The opinion on whether it can be prescribed for fear of flying is divided due to safety issues.

These are:

1. Sedatives and Tranquilisers, makes you sleepy, more relaxed and can significantly delay your reaction times. If there is an emergency during the flight it may impair your ability to concentrate, follow instructions and react to the situation. This could have serious safety consequences for you and those around you.
2. Sedative drugs can make you fall asleep, however when you do sleep it is an unnatural (non-REM) sleep. This means you won’t move around as much as during natural sleep. This can cause you to be at increased risk of developing a blood clot (DVT) in the leg or even the lung. Blood clots are very dangerous and can even prove fatal. This risk is even greater if your flight is longer than four hours.
3. Whilst most people find sedative medications have a relaxing effect, a small number of people can actually feel more agitated or even aggressive after taking it. They can also cause disinhibition and lead you to behave in a way that you would not normally. This could impact on your safety as well as that of other passengers and could also get you into trouble with the law.
4. According to the prescribing guidelines doctors follow, (known as the BNF), sedatives are not recommended for use in phobias. As a doctor, we would be taking a significant legal risk by prescribing against these guidelines. They are only licensed for short term use during a crisis in generalised anxiety. If this is the case, you should be getting proper care and support for your mental health and not going on a flight.
5. They are also illegal in a number of countries. They may be confiscated or you may find yourself in trouble with the police if you are carrying any on arrival.
6. Sedatives stay in your system for quite a while. If your job requires you to submit to random drug testing you may fail this.

We appreciate that fear of flying is very real and very frightening. A much better approach is to tackle this properly with a Fear of Flying course run by the airlines and we have listed a number of these below:

• Easy Jet. Telephone: 0203 8131644
• British Airways. Telephone: 01252 793250
• Virgin Telephone: 01423 714900