Mel Herbert MD, Christine Moutier MD, Ramin Tabatabai MD, and Matthieu DeClerck MD touch on suicide risk in physicians. How did we get here and now what do we do about it?
Great discussion! I may have misheard as I biked to work. Did you say 121 MD suicides each day? that would mean 44,154 suicides/year, which is a lot! I researched this, the figure I found was 300-400/year: An estimated 300–400 physicians die by suicide in the U.S. per year: Confronting Depression and Suicide in PhysiciansA Consensus Statement Claudia Center, JD; Miriam Davis, PhD; Thomas Detre, MD; et al Daniel E. Ford, MD, MPH; Wendy Hansbrough, BSN; Herbert Hendin, MD; John Laszlo, MD; David A. Litts, OD; John Mann, MD; Peter A. Mansky, MD; Robert Michels, MD; Steven H. Miles, MD; Roy Proujansky, MD; Charles F. Reynolds III, MD; Morton M. Silverman, MD Author Affiliations JAMA. 2003;289(23):3161-3166. doi:10.1001/jama.289.23.3161
Have you considered an EMRap support group? Anonymous or non-anonymous posts from members who can then support each other with replies. In Canada, the Canadian Physician Moms Group (Facebook) has 6,000+ members (out of 77,000 physicians in Canada) where people can post about anything but there are A LOT of mental health posts with accompanying support.
@Tim V - yes we have and are considering a support group and some technologies around that where people could "CHAT" with colleges in a safe and secure environment not just about this issue but medicine in general
Amidst the victim-blaming and system excuses and learned helplessness, Mel provides the only solid advice: if you need a therapist, leave town, use a fake name, and pay cash.
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joseph h. - August 16, 2017 5:46 PM
Great discussion! I may have misheard as I biked to work. Did you say 121 MD suicides each day?
that would mean 44,154 suicides/year, which is a lot!
I researched this, the figure I found was 300-400/year:
An estimated 300–400 physicians die by suicide in the U.S. per year:
Confronting Depression and Suicide in PhysiciansA Consensus Statement
Claudia Center, JD; Miriam Davis, PhD; Thomas Detre, MD; et al Daniel E. Ford, MD, MPH; Wendy Hansbrough, BSN; Herbert Hendin, MD; John Laszlo, MD; David A. Litts, OD; John Mann, MD; Peter A. Mansky, MD; Robert Michels, MD; Steven H. Miles, MD; Roy Proujansky, MD; Charles F. Reynolds III, MD; Morton M. Silverman, MD
Author Affiliations
JAMA. 2003;289(23):3161-3166. doi:10.1001/jama.289.23.3161
Cheers,
Joe Howton MD, FAAEM, FACEP
Mel H. - August 16, 2017 8:00 PM
Joseph h. that was total suicide deaths in the US not physician...we should have made that clearer.
Tim V. - September 4, 2017 11:10 PM
Hey Mel,
Great post, thanks for approaching this issue.
Have you considered an EMRap support group? Anonymous or non-anonymous posts from members who can then support each other with replies. In Canada, the Canadian Physician Moms Group (Facebook) has 6,000+ members (out of 77,000 physicians in Canada) where people can post about anything but there are A LOT of mental health posts with accompanying support.
Mel H. - September 5, 2017 2:24 PM
@Tim V - yes we have and are considering a support group and some technologies around that where people could "CHAT" with colleges in a safe and secure environment not just about this issue but medicine in general
Aaron - July 9, 2018 8:40 AM
Amidst the victim-blaming and system excuses and learned helplessness, Mel provides the only solid advice: if you need a therapist, leave town, use a fake name, and pay cash.