Prescribing Diazepam for flying

Patient Information Leaflet – prescribing of Diazepam for the fear of flying 

Fearnhead Cross Medical Centre & Longford Street Surgeries have taken the decision to not prescribe Diazepam for patients who have a fear of flying. There are several reasons as to why this decision has been made which are listed below: 

1. Diazepam is a sedative; this means that it makes you sleepy and more relaxed. There is a worry that if in a case of an emergency during your flight, taking Diazepam may impair your ability to concentrate, follow instructions and react to the situation. This puts your safety at risk and could cause serious consequences to you and those around you.  

1. Taking Diazepam can make you fall asleep with it being a sedative. The sleep you fall in to is an unnatural non-REM sleep and this means that you won’t move around as much as you would during a normal sleep. This puts you at a higher risk of developing a blood clot (DVT) in the leg or even the lung, blood clots are very dangerous and can even prove to be fatal.  

This risk is even greater if your flight is greater than 4 hours 

1. Whilst most people find Diazepam allows them to be sedated, a small number of people experience the opposite effect and may become aggressive. This puts yours and others safety at risk and may also put you in trouble with the law.  

1. According to the national prescribing guidelines that Doctors follow (the British National Formulary or the BNF) sedative drugs like Diazepam are not allowed to be prescribed in cases of phobia. Because of this, if one of our doctors did prescribe this medication because a patient has a phobia of flying, they would be taking a significant legal risk as they are going against the guidelines.  

1. Diazepam and other similar drugs are illegal in several countries. Taking them out of the UK may result in your medication being confiscated or getting in trouble with the police.  

1. Diazepam stays in your system for quite a while. Some places of work require staff to undertake random drug tests, taking diazepam may result in a failed drugs test. 

We do appreciate that having a fear of flying is very real and very frightening. There are different ways to help to combat this fear including fear of flying courses run by the airlines – we have listed a number of these below: 

• Easy Jet – www.fearlessflyer.easyjet.com (020 3813 1644) 
• British Airways – https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/travel-assistance/flying-with-confidence (0044 (0) 1252 793250)