Physicians are twice as likely as the general population to attempt suicide
Nearly a quarter of physicians reported clinical depression in a new survey, while 9% admitted to suicidal thoughts, and 1% shared that they attempted to end their lives.
9,100 physicians across 29 specialties were surveyed last year. While physicians often address the suicide crisis throughout the U.S., many are struggling with their own mental health. Two-thirds of doctors reported colloquial depression, according to the survey. Twenty-four percent of doctors reported clinical depression, and the survey also found that doctors are more likely to have suicidal thoughts compared to those in other professions.
Depression in the medical community has been a serious problem for about as long as it has been measured, Andrea Giedinghagen, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at the St. Louis Washington University School of Medicine, said in the report. “Physicians are also still coping with a pandemic—the trauma from Covid-19 didn’t disappear just because the full ICUs did—and with a fractured healthcare system that virtually guarantees moral distress,” Giedinghagen said. “This is beyond individual solutions for individual problems. Systemic change is necessary.”
Younger physicians were more likely to say that a med school or healthcare organization should be responsible for a student or physician’s suicide. Of those aged 42 to 56 years, 57% were unsure whether institutions should bear any responsibility.
When it comes to specialty, the top five specialist types most likely to report suicidal thoughts were otolaryngology, psychiatry, family medicine, anesthesiology and OB-GYN. The five specialist types least likely were orthopedics, nephrology, oncology, rheumatology and pulmonary medicine...Read more
Who should be responsible for dealing with this issue?
