Physician Suicide: Are We Failing Our Colleagues?

In June 2014, I wrote a piece called “When Physicians Kill Themselves: Insights from Those They Leave Behind”. Now I would like to expand further on what we can learn from their families. This is part of a qualitative research project that I began in January 2015. I am in the process of interviewing family members (and others) who have lost a physician loved one to suicide. 

The stories are shocking and painful. I am struck by the number of doctors who take their own lives without ever receiving any treatment. Nothing. Nada. We need to do something about this and fast. 

The estimate is that somewhere between 300 and 400 doctors die by suicide each year in the United States. We know from rigorous suicidology research that 85-90% of individuals who kill themselves have been living with a psychiatric illness whether it was recognized and treated or not. Physicians have been included in these retrospective studies, so we should be able to conclude that these percentages of psychiatric illness apply to physician suicides as well. 

The spouses, children and parents in my study confirm knowledge of mental illness in their physician loved one but also, with anguish, describe their terrified and thwarted attempts to get him or her to go to see a mental health professional. Most of these same doctors, when asked by their family if they were suicidal, responded evasively— or lied. 

Why is this? Why would a physician, someone who has had basic training in medical school about psychiatric disorders, not go for professional help? And I’m not talking about an ailing physician who tried treatment and it didn’t work or someone who received some treatment but then dropped out. I’m talking about physicians who not even once visit a psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, or other mental health counselor. They consistently and adamantly refused. 

We all know the basic culprits: the stigma attached to mental illness, ruggedness and fierce independence in some doctors who eschew any form of medical care, apprehension  about confidentiality breaches and salacious gossip at work, fear of losing one’s hospital privileges, concern about losing one’s job, anxiety about having problems obtaining or renewing one’s medical license, worries about exclusion clauses in disability insurance. Are there others? 

It’s time for all of us in the mental health field to act. How do we educate our fellow physicians (and medical colleagues) about the illnesses that may befall us, what to watch out for, how to access good care and most important, how do we convince them that these illnesses are treatable, that our patients get better again, that they do not lose their medical licenses?  How do we assist their anguished wives, husbands, sons, daughters, and parents in getting their ill loved one to come for treatment? 

I invite all readers to weigh in on this national tragedy. Please register, log in, and add your suggestions in the commentary section of this blog. Together we can save a life—or many. Thank you. 

Dr. Myers is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and immediate past Vice-Chair of Education and Director of Training in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of seven books the most recent of which are “Touched by Suicide: Hope and Healing After Loss” (with Carla Fine) and “The Physician as Patient: A Clinical Handbook for Mental Health Professionals” (with Glen Gabbard, MD). He is a specialist in physician health and has written extensively on that subject. Currently, Dr Myers serves on the Advisory Board to the Committee for Physician Health of the Medical Society of the State of New York. He is a recent past president (and emeritus board member) of the New York City Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.  

The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the blog post author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Psych Congress Network or other Psych Congress Network authors. Blog entries are not medical advice.