DIFFERENT  LEVELS OF ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION IN AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS

Diferentes níveis de ansiedade  e depressão  em con- troladores de tráfego aéreo

Valdenilson   Ribeiro  Ribas1*,   Talita Raquel  Araújo  Creder4,   Thaiza  Kelly Cavalcanti   Sobrinho5,  Gilca Bezerra  Alves  Siebra6, Maria  Zélia  de  Menezes Barros Leite7, Leila Maria  Vieira de  Medeiros8, Tereza Verônica  dos  Santos9, Tarciana  Elias Cavalcante10, Carlos Augusto  Carvalho  de  Vasconcelos11, Everton Botelho Sougey3, Raul Manhães de Castro2              

ABSTRACT

The profession of air traffic control is embedded in an extremely tense scenario promoted by the expectation generated by professionals and users thinking of not making mistakes. The thought of these professionals, in this sense, seems to produce an emotional state with the subjective experience of fear and constant alarm, if not skewed by efficient psychological defense mechanisms, can produce a state of anxiety and depression. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate anxiety and depression in air traffic controllers (ATC). We evaluated 120 flight protection professionals, being 90 ATCo, subdivided into ATCo with ten or more years in the profession (ATCo³10, n = 45) and ATCo with less than ten years in the profession (ATCo<10, n = 45) and 15  operators of aeronautical information services (AIS), AIS subdivided into ten or more years in the profession (AIS³10, n = 15)