At St Bede Medical Centre, we will not prescribe Diazepam for patients who wish to use this for a fear of flying.
There are several reasons for this decision:
- Diazepam is a sedative. This means the medication makes you sleepier and more relaxed. If there was to be an emergency during the flight, this could impair your ability to concentrate, follow instructions or react to the situation. This could seriously affect the safety of you and other passengers.
- Sedative drugs can make you fall asleep, however, when you sleep it is an unnatural non-REM sleep. This means your movements during sleep are reduced and this can place you at increased risk of developing blood clots (DVT). This risk further increases if your flights is over 4 hours long.
- Although most people respond to Diazepam with sedation, a small proportion experience the opposite effect and can become aggressive. This can also lead to disinhibition and make you behave in ways you normally wouldn’t. This could also impact on your safety and the safety of other passengers or could lead you to get into trouble with the police.
- National prescribing guidelines followed by doctors also do not allow the use of Diazepam (Benzodiazepines) in cases of phobia.
- In several countries, diazepam and similar drugs are illegal.
- Diazepam has a long half-life. This means it stays in your system for a significant amount of time and you may fail random drug testing.
We appreciate a fear of flying is very real and frightening and can be debilitating. However, there are much better and effective ways of managing this. Airlines run Fear of Flying courses, and these are more effective than diazepam and have none of the undesirable side effects.
Fear of Flying Courses
Easyjet
tel: 0203 8131644
British Airways
Our courses | Flying With Confidence
Tel: 01252 793 250.