BMJ  2007;335:961 (10 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.39391.422650.4E

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Suicide rate of women doctors in US is twice that of other working women

Roger Dobson

Abergavenny

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The proportion of female doctors who kill themselves is twice that of other working women, finds a study of self inflicted deaths in 26 US states over nine years.

No overall difference was shown between male doctors and men in other jobs in the proportion who committed suicide—although among men over the age of 45 years the proportion was higher in doctors, the study found (Occupational Medicine doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqm117).

The researchers, from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), used a national database of deaths to compare numbers of suicides among doctors, dentists, and all other occupations. A total of 203 doctors committed suicide in the study period (1984 to 1992).

The researchers looked at numbers of suicides separately for white male and white female doctors and dentists. There were too few non-white professionals . . . [Full text of this article]


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