Anti Depressants and diving

[liz storey]

Can anyone give me any advice, personal experience, information about the taking of anti depressants and their effect on diving? Is there a safe drug to take while diving?
What are the problems associated with diving and the taking of these kinds of drugs?

[Adrian Kelland]

Can anyone give me any advice, personal experience, information about the taking of anti depressants and their effect on diving? Is there a safe drug to take while diving?
What are the problems associated with diving and the taking of these kinds of drugs?

Liz

I have no personal experience, but I think there are two points here to consider, both for yourself and any potential buddy.

1) Should someone be diving in any case with depression? The medical form, Q. 13, raises the issue of mental/psychological ilness. This would refer a person to a medical referee.

2) The effects of the drugs. Different drugs/people, different reactions.You don't say what drugs. Again this would take a person to a medical referee via Q. 16.

You might find useful info in the medical section at www.scubaboard.com. Several doctors are part of that forum. They may have some advice. I think in the end this should come down to a discussion between the person and a medical referee, and perhaps their GP.

Adrian

[Chris Edge]

Persons taking antidepressant medication are not currently allowed to dive. There are several reasons for this but basically there are the effects of pressure to consider and the effect of the mental state of the diver on the buddy etc.

[Adrian Kelland]

Persons taking antidepressant medication are not currently allowed to dive.

Maybe in the UK, but not necessarily elsewhere, as can be read on scubaboard. There you will find instructors using them.

[Steve Walker]

:=Persons taking antidepressant medication are not currently allowed to dive.

Maybe in the UK, but not necessarily elsewhere, as can be read on scubaboard. There you will find instructors using them.

I'm sure you can find Instructors doing many things they shouldn't, it doesn't mean it is acceptable.

Diving on anti-depressants is not recommended by diving medics, see here for info <a href="http://www.scuba-doc.com/" >http://www.scuba-doc.com/</a>
you can also directly e-mail Dr Ernest Campbell, who runs the site, with more specifics if you wish.

Regards

[Adam Worth]

:=Persons taking antidepressant medication are not currently allowed to dive.

Maybe in the UK, but not necessarily elsewhere, as can be read on scubaboard. There you will find instructors using them.

I have no personal experience with these drugs, although I recall a letter published in Diver from a GP who is a HSE qualified for commercial diver's medicals. (I forget his name and can't find it on their web site.) He suggested that modern drugs such as SSRIs were far safer in a diving environment than older drugs such as tricyclics and that each diver should be considered as an individual.

I suggest discussing this with the doctor prescribing the drugs. Other sources of information include the manufacturer's data sheets and numerous web sites, although uncorroborated information/experiences from the web should be viewed with caution.

No one can tell you that you can not dive, although you may be advised against quite firmly and you should understand the risks if you choose to disregard that advice. Whether you can do any particular dive also depends on how you feel at the time and you should not allow yourself to be pressured into diving by your buddies/club if you really don't want to.

Good luck.

Adam

[Adam Worth]

:=Persons taking antidepressant medication are not currently allowed to dive.

Maybe in the UK, but not necessarily elsewhere, as can be read on scubaboard. There you will find instructors using them.

Just because it happens abroad (in warm clear water) does not necessarily mean it is safe in the UK. If the anti-depressant (or depression itself) were to increase predisposition to narcosis for example, this could be more of a problem in cold murky water. (I should have included this in my other reply).

[Adrian Kelland]

It seems you think I condone the mix of drug and diving, or that I am taking anti-depressants. I'M NOT. I happen to think that if someone is on ant-depressants, that the original condition may bar the taker form diving, let alone any side effect. I hope my original reply listed the 2 issues adequately.

I just happened to point out that there will be divers elsewhere, who will be on anti-depressant and diving with their doctors approval.

Those of us who also dive abroad (most of us?) should not assume that the same standards apply as here. They may be higher or lesser standards.

My first reply was just pointing the original poster to an area where more info was available, from doctors.

[Adam Worth]

It seems you think I condone the mix of drug and diving, or that I am taking anti-depressants. I'M NOT. I happen to think that if someone is on ant-depressants, that the original condition may bar the taker form diving, let alone any side effect. I hope my original reply listed the 2 issues adequately.

I'm sorry, I didn't intend to imply that you condone diving while taking anti-depressants, or that you were the diver who posed the original question, or indeed are the diver we are talking about. The point made in my second post (narcosis) would have been better placed in my original reply.

[Adrian Kelland]

No problem.

[liz storey]

Thanks for your help guys...I hasten to add that I am neither suffering with depression nor taking anti depressants. It was purely a research exercise to see what opinion was. I will certainly check the link and re post the question there.
Neither of you have told me anything I did not know, it just seems a shame that if someone is depressed and they love diving then the condition of depression will be exacerbated by the restrictions placed on their leisure pursuits.

[Adam Worth]

:seems a shame that if someone is depressed and they love diving :then the condition of depression will be exacerbated by the :restrictions placed on their leisure pursuits.

When I first learned to dive the medical form included substance dependancy as an absolute contra-indication to diving. Whilst there are good physiological reasons why many drugs are not compatable with diving it seemed excessively harsh to me to prevent someone recovering from a drug problem from doing their pool training and maybe even diving in open water to restricted depth. It seems to me that a new sport/leisure activity may help them recover from their problem.

I should add that I've no personal experience and don't think I know anyone who has, of substance dependancy and diving.

Adam

[Steve Walker]

:seems a shame that if someone is depressed and they love diving :then the condition of depression will be exacerbated by the :restrictions placed on their leisure pursuits.

IME it doesn't really work like that Liz: it's one thing to say a person is "depressed", we all do that from time to time, but to be medically diagnosed with "Depression" and to be prescribed anti-depressants is very different; someone in the latter category is unlikely to be particularly motivated to go diving (nor very much else for that matter) as that kind of depression tends to remove the desire to do so. A one-time diving buddy of mine was being treated for depression and stopped diving due to the potential effects of the medication, which I saw as a very wise move. Sadly (perhaps) he seems to have given up diving altogether.


When I first learned to dive the medical form included substance dependancy as an absolute contra-indication to diving. Whilst there are good physiological reasons why many drugs are not compatable with diving it seemed excessively harsh to me to prevent someone recovering from a drug problem from doing their pool training and maybe even diving in open water to restricted depth. It seems to me that a new sport/leisure activity may help them recover from their problem.

I should add that I've no personal experience and don't think I know anyone who has, of substance dependancy and diving.

Adam

I tend to agree, but it all depends what is meant by "substance abuse". Typically most people will tend to think of e.g. a heroin addict, which would certainly (hopefully!) be a contra-indication to diving by anyone's standards. But if some youngster is arrested by the police for possesion of e.g. a class C drug, they're likely to be given mandatory counselling for their "drug problem", yet the wine buff/real ale afficionado who downs a bottle/several pints a night is considered normal, it all depends where you draw the line IMHO.

For instance, I once saw a diver I used to know (only vaguely, he was an ex-D.O.) have a joint before going diving, which I think suggests a real problem, however if he'd done that at home post-dive instead, then I don't think it would be a problem.
Either way I wouldn't want to buddy-up with this particular diver as I found other parts of his dive conduct equally "questionable".

Regards