Female physicians, but not males, more likely to die by suicide than other professionals

Female physicians are more likely than their non-physician peers to die by suicide, while the opposite is true for male physicians, new research finds. Reviewing data gathered for nine previous studies from 1980 to the present, the authors found that the suicide rate for female doctors was 46% higher than for women in other professions. For male physicians, the rate was 33% lower compared to men who held other jobs, though suicide deaths in both groups decreased over time. Poisoning, suffocation, and firearms were the most common methods of suicide; firearms and poisoning were especially common in the U.S., Brazil, and South Africa. Future studies ought to look more closely at the reasons driving physician suicides and the gender difference, the authors suggest.