Patients sometimes ask us to prescribe diazepam for fear of flying. There are a number of very good reasons why prescribing this drug is not recommended.
1) Diazepam is a sedative, which means it makes you sleepy and more relaxed. If there is an emergency during the flight it may impair your ability to concentrate, follow instructions and react to the situation. This could have serious safety consequences for you and those around you.
2) Sedative drugs can make you fall asleep- however when you do sleep it is an unnatural non-REM sleep. This means you won’t move around as much as during natural sleep. This can cause you to be at increased risk of developing a blood clot (DVT) in the leg or even the lung. Blood clots are very dangerous and can even prove fatal. This risk is even greater if your flight is greater than 4 hours.
3) Whilst most people find benzodiazepines like diazepam sedating, a small number have unexpected agitation and increased aggression. They can also cause disinhibition and lead you to behave in a way that you would not normally. This could impact on your safety as well as that of other passengers and could also get you into trouble with the law.
4) According to the prescribing guidelines followed by doctors (British National Formulary), benzodiazepines are contraindicated (not allowed) in treating phobia. Your doctor would be taking a significant legal risk if they prescribed against these guidelines.
5) Diazepam and similar drugs are illegal in a number of countries. They may be confiscated or you may find yourself in trouble with the police.
6) Diazepam stays in your system for quite a while. If your job requires you to submit to random drug testing you may fail this having taken diazepam.
We appreciate that fear of flying is very real and very frightening. However, there are better and more effective ways of tackling this problem. You may wish to consider a Fear of Flying course which are run by several airlines, or utilise a smartphone app. These courses are far more effective than diazepam, they have none of the undesirable effects and the positive effects of the course continue after the course is completed. We have listed a number of these below.
| Smartphone apps | Airline courses |
| SOAR Fear of Flying | Conquer Fear of Flying Course https://www.fearofflying.com/store |
| Flight Buddy | EasyJet http://www.fearlessflyer.easyjet.com |
| Sky Guru | British Airways http://www.flyingwithconfidence.com/courses/venues/glasgow |
| Virgin https://www.flyingwithoutfear.co.uk/fear-of-flying-courses/adult-course/ |