Last week the FAA announced a significant improvement to its antidepressant policy, lowering the mandatory wait time after beginning or changing antidepressant use from six months to three. This long-awaited change will reduce grounding times for pilots flying on these medications while maintaining safety.

This change partially fulfills a key recommendation of the Mental Health & Aviation Medical Clearances Aviation Rulemaking Committee (Mental Health ARC), upon which EAA served as a voting member. The ARC’s report recommended a wait time of two months, and found that the FAA’s previous six-month wait time was among the longest when compared to several major civil aviation authorities (CAAs) around the world.

With that said, the FAA’s volume of cases is far higher than other CAAs and it has one of the highest numbers of approved antidepressants. The ARC acknowledged that some amount of waiting prior to certification is necessary after starting a new medication or changing dosage, both to ensure that the medication is effective and due to a slight risk of serious side effects such as psychosis and/or increased suicidality.

The FAA now approves nine antidepressant medications, more than twice the number approved just a few years ago. Applicants may only take one medication and must be stable on the medication for the three-month period. They must also undergo an FAA-prescribed neurocognitive evaluation, but the FAA no longer requires follow-up testing in most cases.

“While naturally we would have been thrilled to see the two-month wait time recommended by the ARC, three months is still a major improvement,” said Tom Charpentier, EAA government relations director and Mental Health ARC member. “We hope to see this window further shrink, along with less-stringent evaluation requirements, as these reforms prove their value in safety, fairness, and transparency.”

The ARC made 24 recommendations in total, of which several others have seen meaningful progress. In 2024 the FAA released a new policy on certain mild mental health diagnoses that can be approved by aerospace medical examiners (AMEs) directly, even while the applicant continues therapy in some cases.

A new committee mandated by Sections 411 and 413 of the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act continues the work of mental health policy reform and the implementation of ARC recommendations, with EAA advocacy staff and volunteer AMEs participating. The Mental Health in Aviation Act, which unanimously passed the House of Representatives and currently sits in the Senate, would further strengthen reforms and provide needed funding for mental health certification.