This is a newsweek article I'm sure some of you have read and if you haven't YOU SHOULD

http://www.newsweek.com/id/132887

Doctors also have the highest rates of any other profession of drug abuse, divorce, and depression.

thanks for bringing this to our attention. it's wonderful that there is an effort to shine light on it. addressing problems in the field will be the next step.

I can't imagine that the major problem is that it's underdiagnosed in physicians. It seems like at my medical school I've heard from our health advisor that around 33% of the class is on antidepressants. So obviously they're seeking at least medicine, if not therapy. I wonder if there's more to the numbers as far as factors. Especially because women seem to be more open to medical treatment, more willing to go to the doctor, etc. than men.

http://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=4331&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en

See above, I don't think that path's comment about more divorce in docs is correct when compared with other professions like law and academics. I have read that they do not have more alcohol or drug problems either. Suicide is higher - but I think the higher rate is driven by female physician suicide rates which are 4x higher than the general population.

Thanks for the article just read it. Also now have to disagree with path's statement that docs have more depression. The article says that male physicians don't - and that female physicians might.

Anecdotally, I had one female colleauge to who committed suicide. I was a resident when she was an attending (cardiology) so knew her then. Very bubbly, very hard working. I remember feeling uncomfortable around her because her workload felt so not sustainable - yet she was always chipper about it (it was oddly hard to explain, I am fine with a "let's get to work and be proud of getting things done and taking care of things" mentality but this had that element of "I love taking care of MRSA infected cath sites, much more than laying by the pool with a friends or a good book!" mentality). She was single, no kids, only child of two aging parents. She moved to be near her parents and take care of them - had a failed boyfriend relationship after moving and then committed suicide (poisoned herself with supplies from her lab).

I had been on faculty about a year when she committed suicide and it was a big wakeup call for me. Social isolation and "I am fine, doing great!" fronts kill female physcians, IMHO. Greatful for the social support here.

My information comes form an earlier study. Contrary to popular belief, I don't just pull these things out my arse. :rolleyes:

I should give you more credit, path. It was your statements I read here many months ago about high rates of female physician suicide that made me look into the numbers - and you were right about those. Could find nothing regarding female physician suicide rates being lower or equivalent to the national average. Although I am not sure that if you compared them with other high degree earners, like lawyers, they would be different.

I definitely was "in a funk", probably depression, when I found this and a few other websites where there have been meaningful conversations about what it is like to be a female professional. I needed to know that there were other women like me, struggling w/ the same types of personal and professional issues- it took me a long time to figure out I needed that. I think the isolationism that many female professionals have is huge - it's tough to talk about your feelings and pressures to someone you know can't possibly relate. Also, it's hard to connect w/ other professional women because we are all so busy ouselves. I wish that the female docs who have chosen suicide had not felt so alone...

I think that medicine can become, in a way, an escape from troubling life issues, from exploring oneself. As long as we continue to drive hard, which is encouraged at the training/workplace, we avoid that introspection, and it catches up at some point in those of us who don't face it.

sisriver, i agree. there is always more work that can be done, more extensive review of past records, more reading on conditions/ keeping up with new literature. if for some reason your personal life is floundering but you feel competent and necessary at work, it can be all too easy to avoid the problems at home.

This is very interesting topic. I'm doing psychiatry at the moment and see that mental illness in the medical profession is being talked about slightly more freely. I'm interested in anyone else's comments. There was a show on in the UK on Channel 4 this week called The Doctor Who Hears Voices. She was schizophrenic or bipolar (can't remember which) and was working with a pscyhologist who is against medication. It was quite interesting and contrroversial.