Female Doctors Face Higher Risk for Suicide

August 22, 2024
Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

Suicide rates among female doctors are significantly higher than those of the general population, a new study finds.

Female doctors have a 76% higher suicide risk than average folks, researchers found.

Male doctors had about the same suicide risk as the general public, but they still had an 81% higher risk of suicide compared to other professionals, according to results published Aug. 21 in the BMJ.

“Suicide rate ratios for physicians appear to have decreased over time, but are still increased for female physicians,” concluded the research team led by Eva Schernhammer, an epidemiologist with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

Doctors are considered a profession at high risk for suicide, researchers said in background notes. It’s estimated that one doctor dies by suicide every day in the United States, and around one every 10 days in the U.K., researchers said.

A 2004 analysis found a higher overall risk of death for both male and female physicians, driven in part by higher suicide rates, researchers noted.

For this new review, researchers analyzed data gathered in 39 studies from 20 countries between 1935 and 2020.

A separate analysis of the 10 most recent studies showed a decline in suicide rates for both male and female doctors over time. However, the suicide rate for female doctors remains 24% higher compared with the general population, results show.

More mental health awareness and better workplace support for doctors might have played a role in declining suicide rates, researchers said.

Doctors tend to have personality traits like perfectionism, obsessiveness and competitiveness, according to an accompanying editorial co-written by Dr. Clare Gerada, patron of Doctors in Distress, a charity group offering emotional support to physicians in the U.K.

These traits “in highly stressful work environments can result in a triad of guilt, low self-esteem, and a persistent sense of failure,” Gerada and colleagues wrote.

“Doctors also have access to potentially dangerous drugs, including opiates and anaesthetic agents such as propofol, which have been implicated in the relatively high rate of suicide documented among anaesthetists,” the editorialists added.

Reducing suicide risk among doctors will involve addressing systemic issues of work stress, work-life balance, and unmet emotional and psychological needs, the editorial says.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, expert and confidential advice is available 24/7 on the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

More information

The American Medical Association has more about preventing physician suicide.

SOURCE: BMJ Group, news release, Aug. 21, 2024

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