Houston Chronicle, Viewpoints, Feb. 9, 2007 HOUSTON -- The Feb. 8 Chronicle article "NASA orders review of astronaut screening," calling for additional mental health screenings of astronauts because of what Lisa Nowak did, is an overreaction to an event that should be expected when dealing with such a large number of employees. Nowak's case is not unusual. Disturbing mental and emotional states have also been reported among employees in other working environments that involve complex, sensitive or security issues - including the CIA and police departments in major metropolitan areas. Despite major psychological and psychiatric advances in the assessment of mental and emotional states, the probability of being able to predict that someone hired would display some behavior unexpectedly in the future is less than zero. Potential employees exposed to psychological and/or psychiatric screening tests are generally on their very best behavior during the administration of tests. But because the tests cannot predict circumstances such as separation, divorce, financial difficulties, deaths, etc., some employees can engage in behaviors labeled as abnormal, irrational, unethical or even homicidal. So to conduct further screening of astronauts to determine if they are in the "right" state of mind cannot help predict who might engage in similar maladaptive behaviors. This is true for NASA or for any entity, either in the government or private sector that hires people to work in complex, sensitive and/or security issues. - Dr. Freddy A. Paniagua, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.