Prevalence of suicide-related behaviors among physicians

An analysis of published studies has found a relatively high prevalence of suicidal behaviors among physicians. The findings are published in Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior.

The analysis included 35 studies with a total of 70,368 physicians. The lifetime prevalence of suicidal thoughts was 17.4%, while the 1-year prevalence was 8.6%, 6-month prevalence was 11.9%, and 1-month prevalence was 8.6%. The lifetime prevalence of suicidal attempts was 1.8%, while the 1-year prevalence was 0.3%.

Geographic region was associated with lifetime and 1-year prevalence of suicidal thoughts—for example, rates were higher in Europe than in the United States.