Membership Services
Medication usage update
I want to bring to your attention a change of sorts in the way the FAA regards use of medications. As a quick reminder, many FDA-approved medications are allowed by the FAA for flight duties, although some meds have wait-time restrictions after use. Another key point to remember is that the FAA not only considers the medication and its potential side effects and overall mechanisms of action, but also the condition for which the medication is being used.
For medications that are considered unacceptable for flying if used on a regular basis, the previous “rule of thumb” guidance from the FAA was to “double the dosage interval and wait that long after the last dose before flying.” So, if the prescription stated, “take every six hours as needed,” you were to wait 12 hours after the last dose before taking to the air. That has changed.
The Civil Aerospace Medical Institute’s Bioaeronautical Sciences Research Laboratory in Oklahoma City is undertaking some additional research to determine more precisely the proper dosing interval for medications. In the interim, though, the FAA has now increased the recommended dosing cessation interval to 5 times rather than 2 times. So now, instead of waiting 12 hours after a six-hour dosing interval, 30 hours is the new wait time. Obviously, this is a much more conservative recommendation by the FAA for now, so when the research is completed, hopefully, there will be more medication-specific rules to target individual medications.
Be safe and fly safe!
September 8, 2010
