ABSTRACT
Knowledge of mental health issues is essential to the practise of aviation medicine. Psychiatric symptoms, especially in the area of the stress related disorders, are common and are part of everyday medical practise. The intended audience for this book is not expected to have an in-depth knowledge of psychiatry and the scope of this chapter is, therefore, necessarily limited; it is the intent to provide a concise source on those aspects of mental health that are particularly relevant to the occupational issues of aviation medicine, setting current views in the historical context where this remains relevant to understanding. Descriptions of selected psychiatric disorders of particular relevance to aviation are provided with comment on the associated occupational issues and occupational disposal. A second section is devoted to specific issues in aviation psychiatry. For those in need of more detailed psychiatric knowledge, a recommended concise approach can be found in Essential Psychiatry (Murray et al. 2008) and the New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry (Gelder et al. 2009). The latter is scheduled to have regular online updates from the next edition.
