Air sickness in pilot trainees

ABSTRACT

Motion sickness is a common and debilitating response to provocative motion environment, to which a person is unfamiliar and hence unadapted. It poses a particular problem to aircrew in training, degrades performance in the air, and wastes training time. This paper discusses the incidence, attrition rate and to evaluate the therapeutic role of transderm scopolamine system in motion sickness during flight training in the Royal Jordanian Air Force. Three hundred and forty one flight trainees were included. Designed form elaborating symptoms, correlating factors and response to therapeutic transderm scopolamine system was prepared, a case definition of motion sickness was developed. Data collected from the medical and squadron records were analyzed to evaluate the incidence of motion sickness and the efficacy of therapeutic transderm scopolamine system in reducing the attrition rate. One hundred and six trineesout of 341 [31%] developed motion sickness. A total of 11 [3%] trainees were eliminated from flight training due to that reason, therapeutic transderm scopolamine system was effective in 87% of cases. Familial mediterranean fever and self medication with Retin A [Tretinoin] cream were discovered in two unresolving cases. Motion sickness continues to present difficulties to flight trainees. Clinical assessment is mandatory to exclude secondary causes of motion sickness. Therapeutic transderm scopolamine system can be an effective drug in reducing the susceptibility to conditioned motion sickness with few and tolerable side effects. Further studies to elaborate on other means like desensitization particularly in qualified pilots is encouraged