Your performance is degraded by both prescription and over-the-counter medications. Drugs to treat medical conditions like tranquilizers, sedatives, strong pain relievers, and cough suppressants have primary effects. These include:
- Impair judgment
- Memory
- Alertness
- Coordination
- Vision
- Ability to make calculations.
These chemicals affect the same critical functions:
- Antihistamines
- Blood pressure drugs
- Muscle relaxants
- Agents to control diarrhea
- Motion sickness
Medications that depresses the nervous system like sedatives, tranquilizers and antihistamines make you more susceptible to hypoxia.
You group painkillers into two broad categories: analgesics and anesthetics. Analgesics are drugs that reduce pain while anesthetics are drugs that deaden pain or cause loss of consciousness.
Over-the-counter analgesics like acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), acetaminophen (Tylenol), and ibuprofen (Advil) have few side effects when you take them in the correct dosage.
Flying restrictions for some people that are allergic to certain analgesics or may suffer from stomach irritation are not restricted when taking these drugs.
Restrictions are in place for flying while using the prescription analgesics listed below:
Drugs
These drugs are known to cause side effects like mental confusion, dizziness, headaches, nausea and vision problems.
You use anesthetic drugs for dental and surgical procedures. These local anesthetics wear off within a short period of time. The anesthetic itself may not limit flying as much as the actual procedure and subsequent pain.
Stimulants drugs excite the central nervous system and produce an increase in alertness and activity.
Amphetamines, caffeine, and nicotine are all forms of stimulants. Common uses of these drugs include appetite suppression, fatigue reduction, and mood elevation. Some drugs cause a stimulant reaction even though this reaction is not their primary function. In some cases stimulants produce anxiety and mood swings, both of which are dangerous when flying.
Depressants drugs reduce your body’s functioning in many areas. These drugs:
- Lower blood pressure
- Reduce mental processing
- Slow motor responses
- Slow reaction responses.
Depressants act on your body to slow it down. These include tranquilizers, motion sickness medication, some types of stomach medication, decongestants and antihistamines. The most common depressant is alcohol. Some drugs that are classified as neither stimulants nor depressants have adverse effects on flying.
Some antibiotics produce dangerous side effects that include balance disorders, hearing loss, nausea and vomiting. While many antibiotics are safe for use while flying, the infection requiring the antibiotic may prohibit flying. In addition, unless specifically prescribed by a physician, do not take more than one drug at a time and never mix drugs with alcohol. The effects on you are often unpredictable.
The known dangers of illegal drugs are well documented. Certain illegal drugs can have hallucinatory effects that occur days or weeks after the drug is taken. Obviously, these drugs have no place in the aviation community.
