How many more physicians will we lose to suicide? [View all]

[HuckleB]

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2016/03/many-physicians-will-lose-suicide.html

"Almost two years ago I went to the funeral of a medical school classmate. A little more than three weeks before he had jumped from a parking garage after finishing his clinic. He had a loving wife and three young children. He had the respect of his colleagues and the love of his patients. There was nothing out of the ordinary in his financial or personal life. It didn’t make sense, but it rarely does. Something broke inside the mind of someone I have always known to be a happy, easygoing person.

I don’t know why he committed suicide. It seemed to be related to a recent period of intense, severe depression. I don’t know if the pressures of being a physician were a factor, but I do know that physicians have one of the highest, if not the highest suicide rate of any profession; nearly twice the rate of suicide compared to the general population. It may actually be higher. There is tremendous social and institutional pressure to label a death an accident instead of a suicide when ambiguous. If any cohort of people could make suicide look like an accident or death from natural causes, it would be someone in the medical profession.

Of my medical school class of about one hundred, two have been lost to suicide before my 41st birthday. The first was before we even finished medical school. Why do we lose so many physicians to suicide and how many more will be lost?

There are pressures to being a physician that are unseen by most people not working in the medical field. Rates of burnout and major depression are higher in medical students and physicians, and we tend to not seek treatment. Why would we? There is a stigma to mental health problems. Many people view them as a weakness rather than a serious and very real disease. We would never view one of our patients this way, but sometimes we do treat our peers and ourselves this way. Physicians are often afraid to seek help because of fear of losing their medical license, hospital privileges or malpractice insurance. The inconsistency of treatments prescribed by medical boards and physician ‘help’ programs discourages those who need help the most to seek it. If you know a colleague who has gone through this process you know exactly what I mean. Some of these programs cause more economic stress, guilt, shame and depression than they cure. They are a blunt instrument.

..."

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In case any of us didn't remember, health care workers are under extreme pressure every day. We should remember this as we work to improve the systems we've created.