Not only is the suicide rate high, but according to a Newsweek article, it is the highest compared to any other profession.
Every year, between 300 and 400 physicians take their own lives—roughly one a day. And, in sharp contrast to the general population, where male suicides outnumber female suicides four to one, the suicide rate among male and female doctors is the same."Undiagnosed and untreated depression is the culprit here," says Dr. Charles Reynolds, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who appears in the film and was co-author of a 2003 paper (one of the few) on physician suicide, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association. While the rate of depression over a lifetime is basically the same for male physicians and the general population of men—about 12 percent—the doctors' suicide rate is 1.4 times higher. Female docs have double the rate of depression and 2.3 times the rate of suicide compared with the general population of women. (Some studies report equal rates of depression for women doctors; others report even higher suicide rates for physicians.)
So why aren't depressed docs seeking treatment for a common illness that millions of Americans have learned to manage with therapy and readily available medications? Because they worry—not without reason—that if they admit to a mental-health problem they could lose respect, referrals, income and even their licenses. Because, despite the steady increase in the number of women in the field, medicine is still very much a macho profession; physicians are supposed to be the strong ones who care for the sick, not the sick ones who need to be cared for. "I did not want it to go on my medical record that I had been treated for depression," says Dr. Robert Lehmberg, 60, whose moving account of his struggle with the condition—and the stigma it carries—is featured in the film. "Once I got treated, I realized how foolish all that was."
Fortunately, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has been working to raise awareness about this epidemic through a Web site called doctorswithdepression.org and a documentary called Struggling in Silence: Physician Depression and Suicide, which will begin airing on public TV stations in May.
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