[cougarnurse]

This is scary....VERY scary. A well known MD did this about 10 years ago.
Medical know-how raises suicide risk for doctors - Yahoo! News
CHICAGO - There's a grim, rarely talked-about twist to all that medical know-how doctors learn to save lives: It makes them especially good at ending their own. An estimated 300 to 400 U.S. doctors kill themselves each year — a suicide rate thought to be higher than in the general population, although exact figures are hard to come by.
Some doctors believe the stigma of mental illness is magnified in a profession that prides itself on stoicism and bravado. Many fear admitting psychiatric problems could be fatal to their careers, so they suffer in silence.
And when the pain is too much, doctors have easy access to prescription drugs and a precise knowledge of both how the body works and the amount of a drug needed for an overdose to stop breathing and halt the heart.
"All physicians have access to neat, clean ways to commit suicide," said Dr. Robert Lehmberg, a Little Rock, Ark., surgeon who has battled depression and long considered suicide "an exit strategy if absolutely necessary."
The American Medical Association has called physician suicide "an endemic catastrophe," and pledged two years ago to work to prevent the problem.
But the suicides have persisted. So the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has launched an educational campaign in hopes of making troubled doctors more willing to seek help.
The foundationthe American College of Psychiatrists and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a maker of antidepressant pills, paid for the program. It includes a documentary titled "Struggling in Silence" that begins airing on public television stations this week.
"It really has been swept under the carpet," said Dr. Paula Clayton, the suicide foundation's medical director.
The foundation says 300 to 400 doctors commit suicide each year, based on estimates from research, but that more studies are needed to get a more precise count.
Another estimate of 250 yearly comes from an online article by Dr. Louise Andrew and in American Medical News, an AMA publication. But a spokesman said the AMA doesn't track doctor suicides because accurate numbers aren't available.
Suicide figures in broader society are not completely reliable because suicide is often not given as the cause of death.
The overall U.S. suicide rate among men is four times higher than in women — about 23 per 100,000 versus about 6 per 100,000 in women, according to the most recent government data.
But among doctors, suicide rates are about equal for men and women.
A 28-state study from 1984-95 found women doctors were more than twice as likely as women in the general population to kill themselves. Men were more than 70 percent more likely inside the medical profession than overall to commit suicide.
One explanation is that most suicide attempts in the broader population are unsuccessful, while doctors know how to successfully commit suicide, said Dr. Erika Frank, who specializes in research on physician health.
Depression is often the problem.
Depressed doctors frequently decide to self-medicate but don't seek psychotherapy that could help them deal with underlying issues, said Dr. Glenn Siegel, who runs a suburban Chicago program that treats doctors with drug abuse, depression and other psychiatric problems.

"It's not a safe topic to be as open about in that profession because you're responsible for the well-being of others," Siegel said. "If you're admitting something like that, you're saying maybe you're not fit to do your job."
Adds Lehmberg, the Arkansas surgeon, who is featured in the documentary: "You just would rather take a risk with your health than your career. It's not like you get a second chance with it."
A psychiatrist in the New York area who asked to remain unidentified said he had suicidal thoughts every day for several years. But in medical school in the 1980s, he said he was so embarrassed about seeking help for depression that he went to a pay phone instead of his dorm to call a therapist.
Since then, some schools have begun teaching medical students about depression among doctors, but, he said in an interview, "so much more needs to be done."
Because the stigma persists, he said he didn't want his name used to avoid hurting his family and relationships with colleagues and patients.
Some studies have suggested depression is more common among doctors, especially women physicians, and that the high demands of a job dealing with life-and-death issues makes them prone.
But Frank questions that and said she worries that singling out physicians risks "pathologizing" a profession whose members generally "have it awfully good."
"I think the situation gets portrayed as far more grave than it really is for physicians compared to anyone else in the world," Frank said.
There could be reasons why the stigma would be worse for doctors, "but you can come up with just as many reasons why physicians would be better equipped to acknowledge" mental illness, she said. "We've all done psychiatric training. We all know bad mental health outcomes happen to good people," she said.
This is only part of the story, but any thoughts or comments, folks?

[JennyP]

That's very interesting, cougarnurse. I've never known any doctor that committed suicide; and I'm surprised that the numbers are that high.

However, there's still a stigma in this day and age for a person having a mental illness; and I can understand the hesitancy of a doctor to admit to depression and seeking treatment for it. At the same time, doctors are human like the rest of us; and should realize that they are subject to the same problems as the rest of us. And the general public should also realize that too.

It makes me wonder what the suicide rate is for nurses? Are nurses also more successful at suicide for the same reasons?

[katyv]

I have not known of anyone who killed themselves outright, but I do know of several MDs who had substance abuse issues, which seems to be common with depression and othe mental health issues. My favorite Anesthsia doc drank himself to death. I know of several MDs who are in Recovery from drugs and/or alcohol. There is a support group specifically just for MDs in Indy.
I spoke to my family MD (I have known him since residency). He said that the pressure is very great. He runs to ease his stress, and I do know he had issues with stomach ulcers. I am saddened at the number of deaths.

[katyv]

JennyP- I think that is true for Nurses as well. I work with Nurses in Recovery and many of them are dually dignosed with depression which lead them to use. I know of several who have died from "accidental" overdose. I am sure the statistics would be similar.