Aeroneurosis

A smart Army doctor who last year made news by describing the symptoms he experienced while parachuting from a plane (TIME, Oct. 21) last week flooded the Journal of the American Medical Association with an eight-page report on a new disease peculiar to aviators. Doctors dealing with it variously call the condition "staleness, flying sickness, flying stress, aviator's stomach, aviator's neurasthenia, or aeroneurosis." The U. S. Army's Dr. Harry George Armstrong, 37, of Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, who prepared last week's report prefers aeroneurosis.

Symptoms: Mind "apprehensive, alert, anxious and restless . . . a peculiar analogy [to symptoms] seen in pneumonia.'' Closed eyelids tremble. "Gnawing hunger pain in pains the of ulcer.'' epigastrium not Gurgling unlike in the the intestines "and sometimes a mild watery diarrhea. . . . Increase in sexual functions.''

Frequency: One out of nine Army men to whom Dr. Armstrong gave routine physical examinations to determine their fitness for flying. Only 3% of the ailing men were less than 30 years old.

Causes: Detestation of propeller noise, fear of falling, fear of crashing, fear of seeing mangled bodies, fear of losing jobs, deflation of ego, loss of self-respect, fear of social degradation, anxiety for welfare of family. Dr. Armstrong thinks flying injures the actual tissues of the brain. He is trying to demonstrate this hypothesis by rattling rats in baskets until they go crazy, then examining their brains under the microscope.

Treatment: "Those who have had several recurrences, each more severe than the preceding one, and who are reduced to a state of unfitness for administrative duties should be permanently retired. Those who have had several recurrences and are kept symptom free only by grounding should be permanently grounded. Those who have no more than the initial symptoms should remain on flying duty only under the close continuous observation of a surgeon." Of Dr. Armstrong's 18 patients, two have been retired because of aeroneurosis, three are slated to retire, four have been recommended for ground duty.

Prevention: Avoidance of "profound emotional stress produced principally by accident hazards and social and economic insecurity." Emotional stress "can be off set by suitable compensation, either ego-stimulating or monetary. Since modern commercial aviation lacks any great amount of ego-stimulation, it remains to establish some standard to determine at approximately what point [monetary] compensation overcomes the effect of the accident hazard."

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