Female physicians have a higher rate of suicide than females in the general population.
Research published in JAMA Psychiatry found that female physicians had a 53% increased risk of suicide compared to their female counterparts who weren’t physicians.
“Physicians dedicate years of their lives in training and education to someday care for patients and work within our difficult healthcare system. However, as they care for others, their own physical and mental well-being is often overlooked. Stigma surrounding mental health care, along with fears of jeopardizing their licensure, further discourages them from seeking help. This is also seen through the high prevalence of burnout and depression within the occupation. I believe studies like ours are critical to the well-being of physicians as they give data-driven evidence that something needs to change (e.g., added multimodal suicide prevention) and starts to deconstruct some of that stigma still within the occupation,” Hirsh Makhija, M.S., first author of the study and a postgraduate volunteer researcher in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine told Theravive.
“This study finally confirms what many international meta-analyses and systematic reviews have been pointing towards but have not had definitive results for: female physicians are at higher risk of suicide than females in the general population. The study also provides possible targets for prevention, including job problems, mental health issues, and legal problems.”
To undertake their study, the researchers analyzed data from the National Violent Death Reporting System between 2017 to 2021. After analyzing more than 137 thousand deaths due to suicide they found that whilst 80% of physicians who died by suicide were male, female physicians had a higher rate of suicide compared with the general population.
The data also demonstrated that physicians of either sex who died by suicide were 66% more likely to experience other mental health issues, 35% more likely to experience a depressed mood, 40% more likely to experience legal problems and more than twice as likely to experience career related issues.
“Although our physician suicide dataset comprised of 80% males, it was very eyeopening to see that female physicians had higher rates than the female general population, while the same was not true for male physicians. However, this finding was not surprising as several international meta-analyses and systematic reviews had been pointing to this result,” Makhija said.
The researchers found that physicians were 85% more likely to use poisoning as a suicide method and more than four times more likely to use a sharp instrument.
They were also 75% more likely to test positive for benzodiazepines, 53% more likely to test positive for cardiovascular agents and 32% more likely to test positive for opioids or opiates. They were also three times as likely to test positive for a drug not prescribed for home use.
The study does not determine why female physicians may be at higher risk of suicide, but the researchers believe a number of factors could contribute.
“Based on the data, we can’t conclude on why there is this sex-based difference… We believe possible contributors to the finding on female physicians include under recognition for similar work and achievements, inequitable pay and opportunities for promotion, greater domestic responsibilities leading to work-life imbalance, and risk of sexual harassment. However, many of these contributors are also faced by females in the general population, so there is likely an intersection between these contributors and the experience of being in the healthcare space that is leading female physicians to be at higher risk of suicide,” Mahkija said.
Stigma, he argues, likely also plays a significant role.
“I would say it is majorly involved as seeking treatment can have implications on one’s job and how they are seen by others. This leads to self-stigmatization and fear of repercussions on one’s licensure,” he said.
“There really aren’t a lot of resources made for physicians and programs out there similar to the UCSD HEAR program which connects providers to mental health resources. Together, this likely heavily impacts depression, burnout, and possibly suicide.”