Association between occupation and risk of suicide among nurses and doctors in the US
This study suggests that in the United States, the risk of suicide was significantly higher for nurses compared to the general population, but not for physicians. Further research is needed to assess whether the intervention is associated with a benefit in reducing suicide risk among nurses.
Davis MA, Cher BAY, Friese CR, Bynum JPW The association between occupation and risk of suicide in nurses and physicians in the United States. JAMA Psychiatry. published online April 14, 2021. doi: 10.1001 / jamapsychiatry.2021.0154
Commentary
This study compared the risk of suicide among nurses and physicians in the U.S. with that of the general population and the results showed that this cohort study, which used data from 2007-2018, included 2374 nurses, 857 physicians, and 156,141 members of the general population (aged 30 years and older), and that the 2017-2018 female The rate of suicide per 100,000 people was reported to be 17.1.
In this breakdown, 10.1 were nurses, 10.1 were doctors, and 8.6 were the general population; the suicide incidence rate per 100,000 for males in 2017-2018 was 31.1 for nurses, 31.5 for doctors, and 32.6 for the general population. Suicide risk compared to the general population increased significantly for nurses, but not for doctors.
Related to this, 24.9% (95% CI, 23.5%-26.4%) of nurses reported addiction as a feature of suicide. Those drugs, in the presence of antidepressants, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and opiates, have been found to be more common among clinician suicides than suicides in the general population.
Clearly, these factors have not been elucidated, but the results of the study showed a trend of suicide by poisoning reports related to actual events.
