OCCUPATIONAL OUTCOME IN MILITARY AVIATORS AFTER PSYCHIATRIC-HOSPITALIZATION

Objective: To determine if psychiatric hospitalization precluded a ret urn to occupational status in United States Air Force aviators. Design : A 7-yr retrospective review that joined hospitalization and occupati onal databases using individual identifiers. Subjects: From a populati on of over 35,000 USAF rated aviation officers present between January 1986 and December 1990, 214 were both psychiatrically hospitalized an d on flying status the quarter prior. Primary Outcome Measure: Return to flying duties during a minimum follow-up period of 2 yr. Results: W ithin 2 yr from psychiatric admission, 138 (64.5%) aviators returned t o flying status; 141 (65.9%) returned over 7 yr. In this patient popul ation, an affective disorder diagnosis predicted poor outcome (chi(2) = 12.86; df = 1; p = 0.0003), independent of length of hospitalization . Conclusion: Psychiatric hospitalization did not prevent a return to flying status for a majority of these high functioning aviators. Altho ugh an affective disorder diagnosis negatively affected occupational o utcome, it is unclear whether institutional policy or poor prognosis w as etiologic.