Pilot and Marijuana

[Donny]

I wasn't aware of the electroencephalogram  :facepalm:

It doesn't look so fun.

Its not a big deal. For some reason EEG was a part of Pilots Medical for me (Cot Canada) when i started flying. However i did not know its to check drug use i thought it was to brain tumors.

 

[Loachman]

Who said anything about EEGs being used to "check drug use"?

 

[Journeyman]

Apparently it's used to check drug users' paranoia levels   

 

[Blackadder1916]

Apparently it's used to check drug users' paranoia levels   

Apparently not.  If you accept the reasoning (and add a lot of self-extrapolation) of the following knowledgeable professional, it must be the CFAT that magically makes that determination.  Yup, that's it . . . it all comes down to how you answer question # . . . . .

http://www.rcaf-arc.forces.gc.ca/dfs-dsv/pub/nr-sp/index-eng.asp?id=10280

On Target - Human Factors

Aircrew Medical Selection
Jan. 21, 2010

By Lieutenant-Colonel Bruce Bain, Canadian Forces Environmental Medicine Establishment, Toronto

. . . . . . .

For the purposes of this article, I will concentrate on medical selection for pilots but the principles apply to all aircrew. As any pilot can tell you, "getting in the door" to become a CF pilot is no easy task. After going to the Recruiting Centre and filling in all the usual paperwork to ensure you are not a drug-taking psychopathic megalomaniac who wants nothing more than to strap on a CF-18 and go fire missiles at someone who really got under your skin in high school and having a screening medical to ascertain you in fact have the normal compliment of limbs and organs, you are sent of to the aircrew Selection Centre in Trenton where, after a number of paper and pencil tests they strap you into a fight simulator where you are expected to fly a circuit making few if any errors while talking on the radio, scratching your head and rubbing your belly! If you manage to make it through all that, you are sent to see us here at Canadian Forces Environmental Medicine Establishment, at DRDC Toronto (formerly DCIEM for you old guys) so that the doctors and technicians in our consult service can have a go at you. Here, you will have another history and physical done and a whole battery of tests including blood work, echocardiograms, lung function tests, vision tests and others. The purpose of these tests is to attempt to determine to the extent possible, if you have any medical conditions that could cause sudden incapacitation or conditions that might pre-dispose you to longer term problems that are incompatible with flying operations in the future, essentially an evaluation of training investment.

. . . . . . .

 

[Zoomie]

FWIW they no longer do the EEG at DRDC.  When they did do it, they would use light stimuli to elicit brain responses that were recorded for future examination. Apparently they could use these tests to see if you were predisposed for future brain diseases. I know that the hardest part of the test for me was staying awake. The Sergeant's job was to slam his hand on the table if he saw us nodding off...

 

[medicineman]

If you're doing a sleep deprived EEG, they're generally looking for epilepsy or seizure foci.

MM