Apollo Behavioral Health: Fill & Download for Free

This is an active area of investigation for aerospace medicine researchers. The National Academies have a “Standing Committee on Aerospace Medicine and the Medicine of Extreme Environments” and the NASA Inspector General recently released a report on the challenges NASA has with planning for long-duration exploration. (https://oig.nasa.gov/docs/IG-16-003.pdf)The answer for an Apollo-era astronaut would have been “They die.” Anything but a fairly minor injury would likely have been fatal, though the other two guys would have kept trying to do what they could, probably long past the point of any reasonable hope.For the ISS, the general idea is not to try to do anything but stabilizing care, bundle the injured crewmember and the two other crew that came up with them into a Soyuz, and get to a medical team on the surface. That process is not fast. Getting the Soyuz activated, planning re-entry, getting de-orbited and then waiting for a recovery team could take a day.The only “surgeries” attempted would be things to stabilize an injury. Stopping a hemorrhage or making an airway, for example. For the ISS, there are telemedicine tools that allow a doctor in Mission Control to help direct another crewmember giving emergency care. Even if you have an MD on board, the system does not rely on them for care, since they might be the casualty.Heart problems of various sorts are one of the few areas that NASA has good plans in place. CPR is difficult, but possible, in microgravity, since both the patient and the caregiver have to be anchored. There are medications available, but again the idea is to stabilize and get to the surface.For exploration missions, there is a lot of work still to do to plan for everything from trauma to kidney stones (a serious problem in microgravity) to serious “behavioral health” problems from sleep loss and other cognitive issues.So an answer of “They die.” is a little too pessimistic, though that is certainly a possibility. An astronaut who is electrocuted or suffers a traumatic injury during an EVA has poor survival prospects, and the main focus is getting them to the surface as fast as possible. An ISS astronaut with an arrhythmia is likely to get treated on orbit with medication, and come home on an expedited but not emergency basis. In between are a bunch of possible mitigations and outcomes. All of these need much more planning before we go beyond low-Earth orbit.

NASA generally doesn’t fire astronauts. They often leave on their own, moving on to other adventures…typically as they are passed over for any later missions.But there have been a few occasions where an astronaut was let go, or were not assigned to flights again.In NASA’s early history, from 1959 to 1981, there were comparably few missions available. Deke Slayton, Director of Flight Crew Operations for much of this time, had principal responsibility in flight assignments. Most of the assignments were through rotation. If you were a backup crew for a flight, you’d be a prime crewmember two flights later.However, Deke’s assignments also reflected an astronaut’s attitude in training, health, or the astronaut’s requests for assignment. Here are some examples.Deke Slayton himself was grounded due to health issues. A member of the Original Seven Astronauts, he was supposed to fly on a Mercury spacecraft when a heart murmur was discovered. He would successfully move to flight operations to assign astronauts. He would finally fly on the last Apollo mission, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, in 1975.Scott Carpenter, another Original Seven astronaut, was effectively blackballed after his Aurora 7 flight. Carpenter was not taking greater care in monitoring his malfunctioning spacecraft’s fuel during his orbits. He landed 250 miles off-target, scaring the crap out of NASA Flight Director Chris Kraft, who swore that Carpenter would never fly again. Carpenter left the corps in 1967.Gordo Cooper, another Original Seven astronaut, was also passed over for an Apollo flight. A veteran of two spaceflights, Cooper’s personal life left him lax in training. Deke had put him as a backup for the Apollo 10 mission but Cooper’s reluctance to commit to training meant that others who were more eager would fly instead. Cooper left the corps in 1971.Michael Collins was originally assigned on the mission that would become Apollo 8. But a spinal issue in his neck required surgery that pulled him from that flight, replaced by Jim Lovell. Collins flew the historic Apollo 11 mission as Command Module Pilot. Deke offered Collins another flight as commander of a later Apollo mission, but Collins declined for personal reasons.Rusty Schweickart had the misfortune of experiencing “space sickness” that other astronauts believed had caused him to be off the flight rotation after his Apollo 9 Earth orbital test flight. Schweickart’s spacewalk on his mission was delayed when then little-known effects of space adaptation syndrome took hold, causing vomiting that, if it happened inside a space suit, could asphyxiate him. Rusty did complete his mission, but early fears about SAS appeared to have grounded Rusty and caused other astronauts not to report sickness of their own in fear of getting grounded. He remained with NASA as a hard worker through Skylab, resigning in 1977.The most public event with an astronaut’s conduct that did cause them to be publicly fired involved astronaut Lisa Nowak. A veteran of the STS-121 flight, the astronaut was arrested in 2007, charged with attempted kidnapping, burglary and more. Both she and another astronaut she was once involved with, William Oefelein, became the only astronauts actively fired from NASA.Update: August 31, 2019: Yes, the recent news involving ISS astronaut Anne McClain may also cause her problems based on NASA’s prior tendency to avoid discussing scandalous behaviors or actions—despite no actual trial, indictment, or conviction. Let’s hope things work out well for Ms. McClain. I had her on my list of Artemis astronauts, but NASA has a large selection in their corps and aren’t dependent on only one person.

A panic attack causes sudden fear, overwhelming feelings, and strong reactions to normal, ordinary, and non-threatening situations. In a panic attack situation, an individual can sweat a lot and can have difficulty breathing and feel as if they are about to have a heart attack.Anyone can experience a panic attack. However, some of the factors that lead to a panic attack are as follows:Gender: Among men and women, women are more likely to have panic attacks as compared to men.Age: People of all age groups can experience panic attacks. However, panic attacks are first experienced during the early adult years.Categories of panic and anxiety-related disorders – how to differentiate?Panic attacks are strong, intense periods of fear or feeling doom that develop across a short time frame (around 10 minutes). They are linked to at least four of the below-mentioned factors:Sweating.Palpitations.Sudden overwhelming fear.Shortness of breath.Pain in the chest.A feeling of choking.A fear of dying.Trembling.Hot flushes or cills.Dizziness.Nausea.Numbnes or tingling in the hands and legs or the entire body.De-realization (a feeling of being detached from the world).Panic disorder and panic attacks and are not the same. A panic disorder includes repeated panic attacks. These attacks are accompanied by a constant fear of having future panic attacks and, usually, avoiding circumstances that might trigger or recall past attacks. All panic attacks are not caused by panic disorders. Other causes that might trigger a panic attack are:Heart attacksSocial phobiaHypoglycemiaPost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)Agoraphobia (fear of not being able to escape like being in crowds or flying in an airplane)Mitral valve prolapseHyperthyroidism2. Generalized anxiety disorder is an extreme, unrealistic worry across a duration of at least six months. It is linked to a minimum of three of the below-mentioned symptoms:Muscle tensionFatiguePersonality changes, such as becoming less socialDifficulty concentratingSleep disturbancesRestlessnessIrritability or explosive anger3. Phobia disorders are severe, continuous, and repeated fear of particular objects (such as insects, blood) or situations (such as public speaking, heights). Exposure to such objects or situations might trigger a panic attack. Examples of phobia disorders are agoraphobia and social phobia.4. Post-traumatic stress disorder details a series of emotional reactions. These reactions can be a result of:Near-death situations, like earthquakes, floods, fires, accidents, etc, or death.Experiences that threaten someone’s (own) or another person’s physical health.These traumatic situations might emerge in a person’s dreams and thoughts. The situations are re-experienced by feelings of horror, helplessness, and fear. General behaviors include:Being hypervigilant (you closely watch your surroundings)Difficulty sleepingFeeling a general sense of gloom and doom with diminished emotions (such as loving feelings or aspirations for the future)Avoiding people, activities, or places linked with the triggering eventDifficulty concentratingWhat are the causes of panic attacks?The underlying causes of panic attacks are different for different patients, and one may not be able to ascertain a definite causal factor. However, it is analyzed that the brain and nervous system play an important role in handling anxiety or fear in a given situation. The risk of occurrence of a panic attack increases due to the following reasons:Mental health issues – People having depression, mental illness, and anxiety disorder are prone to panic attacks.Family history – Panic disorders often run in the family.Substance abuse problems – Drug addiction and alcohol consumption increase the risk of a panic attack.Panic attacks occur suddenly and take time to subside. Symptoms of a panic attack are visible approximately after 10 minutes of the occurrence. However, once the fear mode is passed, these also disappear soon.To book an appointment with our specialists, visit Top Doctors at Apollo Hospitals. Book Appointment Now