ADD/ADHD Question.. I searched..

[fastattack]

Here is a diffrent type of question:
I just took my class 3 medical and I got deferred as I put on form that I take Concerta 36mg..

I was diagnosed with a mild form of add/adhd at age 23.

I don't need the medication for every day life but only for studying purposes ( as my last 2 years of college were starting to be a daunting task as I never really needed to sit down and study.)

I take the medication pretty much as needed maybe one or twice a week, and mostly I use it more as a corrective measure ( like using eye glasses) when studying. The only side effect that I experience is a loss of apetite.

Being that I am not taking it every day, will the FAA still put me on a holding pattern and make me take the
Winsconsin Card Sorting Test
Trail Making Test
and the PASAT?
and no longer take the medication.

I await the response of the FAA on my medical, but in the meantime I am wondering if I should go ahead and do the above anyway to try to have everything in order to get my medical faster.
with medical school in restarting in the fall , and I want to make sure I have my single engine rating addon to my private pilot certificate , during my downtime in the summer..

thanks!

[My Flight Surgeon]

You will have to be off the medication for at least 90 if not 180 days, have documentation from your physician that you are functioning well without it and will probably have to take the neuropsychological tests required by the FAA. They are really pretty sticky about this issue. The problem is that if one needs medication to be able to function, they may be a danger to aviation safety.

Let us know what they say.

[fastattack]

Originally Posted by My Flight Surgeon

You will have to be off the medication for at least 90 if not 180 days, have documentation from your physician that you are functioning well without it and will probably have to take the neuropsychological tests required by the FAA. They are really pretty sticky about this issue. The problem is that if one needs medication to be able to function, they may be a danger to aviation safety.

Let us know what they say.

Just got more conflicting info... basicly now they are saying if diagnosed after 20.. you can take the necessary tests being off the medication for 3 days.. but must remain of it.. (it won't matter to me as I can do without the need of medication)
--as a side note--
seems like a fellow doctor got his denied even though he did good on his tests.. the factor was in his case that he told the FAA he would not stop the medication..
I guess its a controversial subject overall :
www.adhdpilots.org/index.php?PAGE_ID=4

[My Flight Surgeon]

Three days sounds like a short time to me but they may let you get by with it considering the half-life is 3.5 hours.

I have pilots who have had medicals approved and those who have not. It depends on the FAA's analysis of the psychological tests. They also will require you to supply them with the raw testing data as well as the psychologist's report. They have their own folks who are experts look at the data and do their own interpretation.