Physician Suicide in the United States:Updated Estimates from the National Violent Death Reporting System

ABSTRACT

Physician suicide and well-being are critical issues but studies use varying methodologies and suicide is frequently underreported. This study sought to update data on physician suicides in the United States. The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) at the Centers for Disease Control collects details about violent deaths. The study used 2010–2015 data from 27 NVDRS states to identify suicide deaths among physicians or non-physicians and calculate annual standardized mortality rates (SMR). Of 63,780 victims total, there were 357 physicians identified over 6 years, (307 men and 50 women). If results are extrapolated to all 50 states, there would be approximately 119 physician suicides annually. The SMR for physicians overall was not statistically different from that of non-physicians. This is the first study in 16 years to update estimated physician suicide rates in the United States. The research used strict criteria to identify physicians so results likely represent the lower boundary of physician suicides. Findings show that physician suicide is not significantly lower than that of non-physicians and emphasizes the importance of focusing on structural changes to reduce stigma around mental health in the medical community.

KEYWORDS:

• Suicide
• physicians
• health professionals
• epidemiology
• standardized mortality ratio

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Missy Plegue MS for her assistance with STATA calculations and to Katie Grode for her help with manuscript formatting.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.