FAA expands PATH recertification and broadens medication categories beyond 'SSRI'
Summary
FAA said the new PATH recertification form and PATH program (renamed from SSRI) will cover nine medications (including duloxetine and bupropion) and allow many pilots to continue care with their primary provider while reducing need for specialist signatures.
FAA chief psychiatrist Dr. Chad Burgdorff described changes to recertification and the Path Status Summary (PATH) form, saying the agency will move away from the term 'SSRI' because the renewal pathway now covers a broader set of medications. "We're moving away from the word SSRI for this program. And we're moving towards the word PATH because we've already expanded to nine medications," he said, naming examples like duloxetine and bupropion among accepted agents.
Under the new PATH-based AASI renewals, treating providers may be primary-care clinicians (no psychiatrist signature required), and AMEs will rely on standard clinical progress notes and the one-page PATH Status Summary at the one-year mark. The FAA emphasized that PATH applies only after a successful initial SSRI/SSRI-pathway initiation and detailed neuropsychological and psychiatric review (initial workup remains required).
AI generated
The text on this page is AI generated. Summaries, highlights, analysis, and video transcripts are all produced from the original source material.
AI can make mistakes, so if you spot one, and we will fix it for everyone.
Note: the source content is unaltered by us. Any content source we link to, be it a video, an audio recording, or a document, is presented exactly as its publisher released it. That publisher is usually a government body, sometimes an individual official or another organisation.
