Women doctors at heightened risk for suicide

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Physicians—especially female physicians—face a higher suicide risk than the general population, according to a new report.

“The motivation to conduct this particular research came from a series of suicides of clinician colleagues at my hospital as well as a more recent suicide here at Harvard Medical School,” Dr. Eva S. Schernhammer from Channing Laboratory in Boston told AMN Health.

Schernhammer and Dr. Graham A. Colditz analyzed the findings from 25 independent studies of physician suicide rates.

Suicide rates were 41 percent higher among male doctors than in the general population, the team reports in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The suicide rate for female doctors was more than double that in the general population.

While it has been known that doctors commit suicide somewhat more often usual, these results “suggest that the actual suicide rate ratio of female physicians is substantially higher than that of male physicians,” the investigators conclude.

“Even only modestly elevated suicide rates among physicians will hopefully remind them that their profession poses an extraordinary amount of stress on them and encourage them to seek help with coping, if needed,” Schernhammer said.

SOURCE: American Journal of Psychiatry, December 2004.

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