Study: 1 In Every 4 Medical Students Are Depressed, While 13% Of Commercial Airline Pilots Suffer From Depression & May Have Suicidal Thoughts

By Christon Jervil Ligon - 17 Dec '16 01:27AM

A new study revealed that the future health practitioners of the country are in need of medical help themselves at the present time, while another one indicates that the often cool, calm and collected U.S. airline pilots may not be what they seem on the outside, at all times.

Studies Shows A Number Of Medical Students And U.S. Pilots May Be Suffering From Depression

Findings of a recent study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggest that around 27 percent of 120,000 medical students from over 45 countries may be depressed, and about 10 percent may be having suicidal thoughts, the Huffington Post reports. The study also showed that these students increase their risk of experiencing depression symptoms as they start to study in the medical school.

Meanwhile, another study, recently published in the journal Environmental Health, found that 426 out of 3,278 pilots (or 13 percent) are likely suffering from depression. Furthermore, roughly 4 percent or 75 pilots from a segment of the group comprising of 1,798 pilots have had thoughts of self-harm or that they might be better off dead in the past several days leading to the survey, wrote the Los Angeles Times

Should There Be A Cause Of Concern For The Airline Commuters?

"It is important to remember that airline travel is the safest mode of transportation in the world," says Air Line Pilots Assn. International (ALPA). "Pilots for U.S. carriers alone safely accomplish 27,000 takeoffs and landings each day, in every kind of adverse weather and operational conditions."

And, ALPA also emphasized that U.S. airline pilots undergo stringent process when it comes to ensuring that they are in the best shape and right frame of mind while performing their duties, where thousands of lives are at stake.

"The airline pilot profession in North America is one of the most highly vetted careers today," ALPA added. They also said that there is a continuous monitoring of those in the profession for the duration of their careers. These U.S. pilots subject themselves from continuing training, audits and medical exams, while various measures were laid down in order to guarantee the safety of the flight.