Diving after tiny dose of valium

[heftysmurf]

While I get people and their reasons, and totally respect their reasons, I'm just curious if some consider diving a sport only for the abled or healthy? DiveHeart and Scuba4Good are two orgs that specifically focus on ensuring diving is for everyone. I wouldn't be diving if it weren't for Dive4Vets and Scuba4Good.

Sure, I have anxiety. Others might be paraplegic, some missing limbs, some with developmental issues. I'm no doctor but I'm willing to bet that many of those who engage in disabled diving activities, whether it's a Scubility buddy or diver these folks might take a med that carries some risk. However, working with your medical team and gauging your own level of risk, along with informing your buddy, makes the risk manageable. Especially for recreational diving. No one, or at least I'm not talking about some cave, tec, or CCR diving. I'm speaking of rec limits of 60' on a reef to enjoy the ocean. Cave and tec, then yeah, might be out of scope.

I just feel it's unfortunate to ostracize or say "I'd never dive with someone who has a medical condition managed my medication" and really prevents one from meeting fantastic people.

 

[BoltSnap]

While I get people and their reasons, and totally respect their reasons, I'm just curious if some consider diving a sport only for the abled or healthy? DiveHeart and Scuba4Good are two orgs that specifically focus on ensuring diving is for everyone. I wouldn't be diving if it weren't for Dive4Vets and Scuba4Good.

Sure, I have anxiety. Others might be paraplegic, some missing limbs, some with developmental issues. I'm no doctor but I'm willing to bet that many of those who engage in disabled diving activities, whether it's a Scubility buddy or diver these folks might take a med that carries some risk. However, working with your medical team and gauging your own level of risk, along with informing your buddy, makes the risk manageable. Especially for recreational diving. No one, or at least I'm not talking about some cave, tec, or CCR diving. I'm speaking of rec limits of 60' on a reef to enjoy the ocean. Cave and tec, then yeah, might be out of scope.

I just feel it's unfortunate to ostracize or say "I'd never dive with someone who has a medical condition managed my medication" and really prevents one from meeting fantastic people.

Don't these folks undergo special training with specially trained instructors and specially trained dive buddies?

 

[heftysmurf]

Don't these folks undergo special training with specially trained instructors and specially trained dive buddies?

Certainly. My post was maybe too much. However, pre-dive medical form, doc approves someone because they have high blood pressure, take meds, and have done so for a decade and things are managed, is that a disqualifier of being a buddy? Or a transplant patient who has been on anti-rejection meds but their doc signed off, does that disqualify them?

All I'm saying is that, and we're veering off of the OP's original ask about valium -- the answer is consult your doc -- I'm just saying that again, your prerogative and anyones prerogative really about who they dive with, but hard stops with meds that many many people take would almost make someone WANT to hide something from you if you were at a place and needed a buddy.

 

[Jersey1971]

Deleting my post, because I reread OP and saw that it's as needed not daily. This sounds much more reasonable.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

While I get people and their reasons, and totally respect their reasons, I'm just curious if some consider diving a sport only for the abled or healthy? DiveHeart and Scuba4Good are two orgs that specifically focus on ensuring diving is for everyone. I wouldn't be diving if it weren't for Dive4Vets and Scuba4Good.

Sure, I have anxiety. Others might be paraplegic, some missing limbs, some with developmental issues. I'm no doctor but I'm willing to bet that many of those who engage in disabled diving activities, whether it's a Scubility buddy or diver these folks might take a med that carries some risk. However, working with your medical team and gauging your own level of risk, along with informing your buddy, makes the risk manageable. Especially for recreational diving. No one, or at least I'm not talking about some cave, tec, or CCR diving. I'm speaking of rec limits of 60' on a reef to enjoy the ocean. Cave and tec, then yeah, might be out of scope.

I just feel it's unfortunate to ostracize or say "I'd never dive with someone who has a medical condition managed my medication" and really prevents one from meeting fantastic people.

That's a much broader question IMHO. Adaptive dive groups do amazing things, and their entire focus is on people who need specialized assistance in order to dive. The big difference is that divers' medical conditions are known and, in some cases, specific risk mitigation plans are put in place around those conditions. For a diver on anti-anxiety medications, that might include sticking with shallow dives, with the diver carefully monitored for side effects. @DiveHeart : Jim and friends, please jump in here and clarify/add specifics if you feel so moved.

The original post was from a diver in the general population (so to speak) who needs low-dose anxiolytics from time to time and whose condition may not be known to the other divers around. If they need the med, then they need it, just as with any other medical condition as you said (and thank you for normalizing mental health!). The compassion behind that thought can dwell alongside the fact that that particular medication can affect them at pressure and that, in the interest of their and others' safety, they should not dive while the meds are still in their system.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[Tim Clark Diving]

I feel that SCUBA diving is a sport that can be enjoyed by a wide variety of people, including those with physical or mental conditions. But it needs to be clear what conditions they have and how to mitigate the safety aspect. I was an instructor for the Handicapped Scuba Association in the 90's and we had a number of divers missing limbs or having other physical limitations. They all had a dive buddy who was trained in their particular handicap, and many of them had prosthetics that allowed them to navigate better underwater. The divers were thrilled going diving since they didn't have to deal with gravity issues, and missing limbs wasn't such a problem underwater. Medications are a different issue since they can create a mental handicap. However, we all deal with nitrogen narcosis and oxygen toxicity issues when we dive deep. We understand the problems with deeper dives, set our limits based on that knowledge, and mitigate risks if we are going to go over those limits. If someone is on medications, knows how they impact them at depth, and they and their buddy are OK with those risks or can mitigate them, then there is no reason not to dive. So no, I don't think diving is only for the abled or healthy. But it does have risks that need to be understood and dealt with.

 

[nippurmagnum]

I agree. Doctors and other experts can only give advice based on experience and best evidence.

And concerns about legal liability. Which may easily take precedence over experience and evidence.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

And concerns about legal liability. Which may easily take precedence over experience and evidence.

That is a very broad statement. I'd agree in some cases, especially in the setting of a litigious country like the US. Emergency medicine is a good example. Yes, I'm a medical professional and write under the auspices of an organization and I do have to be mindful of that, but my posts above reflect what I'd do in an actual dive setting outside my professional role and have little to do with legal liability. Sedatives like benzodiazepines do not mix well with diving.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[tridacna]

This discussion is veering slightly toward that of "individual freedom and rights" vs people telling us what to do. When a diving doctor offers advice (more than once) about the danger of diving while taking a class of drugs, this is probably not the right time to make the Covid vaccine argument.

 

[nippurmagnum]

There's a paper in the Malta Medical Journal that looked at the effect of various drugs in a hyperbaric environment, and it notes that valium "has been used without any side effects to depths of 50 meters" -- though it proceeds to warn of the dangers of side effects of the drug itself. Interestingly, it also notes that diazepam has been used to "prevent or treat convulsions from oxygen toxicity." https://www.um.edu.mt/umms/mmj/PDF/79.pdf

I also found a recent study on the effect of valium on zebra fish, which found decreased swimming velocity and locomotor activity when they are exposed to "non-lethal" doses. Which may be of limited interest to you if you are not a zebra fish. Impacts of chronic exposure to sublethal diazepam on behavioral traits of female and male zebrafish (Danio rerio)

FWIW.