Rise in Suicide Rate of Doctors

Issues with healthcare appear to get a considerable amount of notice; however, one noteworthy aspect is not getting desired attention. Increasing Mental health issues of doctors & high rate of suicide among doctor are usually neglected & given less consideration.

To understand hidden factors that doctors deal with & to put light on the increased level of suicides among doctors, we first need to understand the stress doctors face & how they affect their mental health.

Every day one medical specialist ends his life in the U.S – the most exceptional suicide rate of any profession.

According to research, the number of doctors suicides is 28 to 40 for each 100,000. General Population suicide ratio is 12.3 per 100,000. Rate of doctors suicide is twice that of all population.

Doctors who commit suicide have often observed of being suffering from untreated depression or mental illnesses of some sort. As per the American Psychiatric Association (APA) 2018 annual meeting, the rate of suicide among doctor is even more than that of the military, whereas military job is considered as the most stressful profession.

The researchers used MEDLINE & Pubmed to go through all the published articles & journals during the past 10 years, to study doctor suicide. The research outcomes additionally demonstrated that even tough female specialists try to suicide far less frequently than female in the rest of the population, their completion rate exceeds that of the overall public by 2.5 to 4 times. Experts are attempting to know why the rates are so high. Study analysis explains that the few of the most basic diagnoses are mood swings, liquor addiction, and substance misuse.

One research revealed that mental illness or depression impacts approx 12% of male doctors and up to 19.5% of female doctors, a rate as same as the population. Depression is progressively getting regular in medical students & occupants. About 15% to 30% have traits of depression.

Social stigma is a significant barrier in asking for medical help. Study in 2016 discovered, 50% of female doctors who took a Facebook survey stated meeting criteria for a mental disorder but were hesitant to ask professional help because of the concern of social stigma.

Doctors feel shy in admitting that they need medical health. For many doctors, it is a shameful for suffering from mental illness, depression or suicidal thoughts, because of the intense prejudice towards mental illness that still endures in the healthcare profession.