Post-flight confusion: does flying affect the brain?

Gianetta Rands; Thomas McCabe; Chris Imray

doi:10.1192/bji.2020.1

Post-flight confusion: does flying affect the brain?

BJPsych Int. 2020 Aug;17(3):62-65. doi: 10.1192/bji.2020.1.

Authors

Gianetta Rands¹, Thomas McCabe², Chris Imray³

Affiliations

¹ Independent Psychiatrist, London, UK. Email: grands@doctors.org.uk.
² ST4 in Old Age Psychiatry, West of Scotland Higher Psychiatry Training Scheme, UK.
³ PhD, FRCS, FRCP, FRGS, Consultant Vascular and Renal Transplant Surgeon, Director of Research and Development, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwick NHS Trust, UK.

Abstract

This paper describes a condition termed post-flight confusion using anecdotal and clinical observations. It reviews research from the fields of aviation and altitude medicine and how this could apply to some physiological changes that happen during commercial flights. The collection of symptoms observed is similar to those of delirium. More research is needed to validate these observations, to identify the risks of flying for older people and to consider not only how to minimise these risks but whether this situation contributes to our knowledge about the aetiologies of delirium and dementias.

Keywords: Aetiology; clinical neurology; cognitive neuroscience; dementia; organic syndromes.