Letters to the Editor |
The incidence of suicides among physicians and dentists: an unexplained story
Dear Sir,Petersen and Burnett are to be commended on their paper ‘The suicide mortality of working physicians and dentists' [1] and deserve praise for their valuable work. This meticulous study took into consideration 26 US states and the authors are correct saying that health professionals have high performance expectations. While the paper considers physicians and dentists, suicide occurs in other professional groups who put in significant effort to become established in society.
The authors have commented upon the statistical aspect of the results but left out many factors which may have influenced the data. It was not stated if marital status of doctors, self-poisoning, addiction or psychiatric disorders were the sole reasons for such suicide. A study in the UK had defined such factors as the cause of suicide in physicians [2] and there might have been instances where these doctors would have accessed psychiatric help or have used medication.
The working atmosphere is very important in the causation of suicide. Overwork and burden of work are the precipitating factors. There is a varying prevalence of suicide planning in different regions. Past studies found the prevalence rate to be 3.9, 1 and 10% in US, Finnish and Norwegian physicians, respectively [3–5]. Such figures are alarming and the predictors of suicide are important. Negative life events may have to be monitored closely. Much has to be done to tackle this problem as physicians and dentists are important assets to society.
Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
e-mail: das_srijit23{at}rediffmail.com
References
- Petersen MR, Burnett CA. The suicide mortality of working physicians and dentists. Occup Med (Lond) (2008) 58:25–29.[CrossRef][Medline]
- Hawton K, Malmberg A, Simkin S. Suicide in doctors. A psychological autopsy study. J Psychosom Res (2004) 57:1–4.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
- Kessler RC, Borges G, Walters EE. Prevalence of and risk factors for lifetime suicide attempts in the National Comorbidity Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry (1999) 56:617–626.
[Abstract/Free Full Text] - Olkinuora M, Asp S, Juntunen J, Kauttu K, Strid L, Aarimaa M. Stress symptoms, burnout and suicidal thoughts in Finnish physicians. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol (1990) 25:81–86.[Web of Science][Medline]
- Hem E, Grønvold NT, Aasland OG, Ekeberg Ø. The prevalence of suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts among Norwegian physicians. Results from a cross-sectional survey of a nationwide sample. Eur Psychiatry (2000) 15:183–189.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
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