article_snippet: Yet if treated, it poses much less risk, though not necessarily zero.
article_snippet: the Federal Aviation Administration requires that pilots self-report any diagnoses.  
article_snippet: health care professionals may know that a pilot has a medical problem that is poorly or not treated and may endanger passengers, but these providers have no obligation to do anything about it.
article_snippet: The Germanwings disaster has demonstrated that current standards of medical and psychiatric evaluation are inadequate.
article_snippet: the Federal Aviation Administration the Federal Aviation Administration requires only that pilots fill out a psychological questionnaire, asking whether pilots have had psychological symptoms.  
article_snippet: But pilots are not assessed in person by a psychiatrist.
article_snippet: Such face-to-face assessments can provide crucial information that self-report forms might miss, partly because pilots might answer inaccurately.
article_snippet: Medical exams and records over time can indicate key problems that a single visit to an the Federal Aviation Administration doctor may miss.  
article_snippet: But requiring more information from pilots diminishes pilots rights to privacy.  
article_snippet: Some diagnoses may be treatable and thus permissible if doctors examine the pilot more frequently than once a year.
article_snippet: Early in the HIV epidemic, for instance, some critics argued that HIV-infected pilots should be barred from flying, since the virus could cause neurological problems.  
article_snippet: Fortunately, the FAA decided that evidence of actual neurological deficits -- not infection alone -- should ground these employees.
article_snippet: Physicians arguably should consider reporting pilots who have, for instance, epilepsy, manic-depression or diabetes that leads to coma if these conditions are not well controlled with medications.
article_snippet: Yet stigma can make pilots fear job loss and thus hide diagnoses and not seek treatment.  
article_snippet: the FAA the FAA could require that pilots seek treatment in order to fly, but some pilots may still simply cover up problems.
article_snippet: Ideally, the clinician should be able to talk with the pilot about the need not to fly and arrange a leave for a few months to improve treatment.  
article_snippet: In addition, we need research to find how much physician reporting would reduce risks or lead pilots to camouflage problems.
highlights_snippet: Robert Klitzman: Physicians should consider reporting pilots who have medical problems such as depression .
  
highlights_snippet: Yet stigma can make pilots fear job loss and thus hide diagnoses and not seek treatment .
  
highlights_snippet: The FAA could require that pilots seek treatment in order to fly, but some pilots may still simply cover up problems .