A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW ON GENDER-SPECIFIC SUICIDE MORTALITY IN MEDICAL DOCTORS

Background. So far no comprehensive systematic review has been publish ed about epidemiologic studies on suicides among medical practitioners . The aim here is to describe the variation of published estimates of relative risk of doctors to die from suicide. Method. A systematic rev iew of published original articles on population-based studies, regist ered mainly in MEDLINE and fulfilling specific methodological requirem ents. Incidence rates and standardised mortality ratios were calculate d for male and female doctors in relation to the reference groups. Res ults. The estimated relative risk varied from 1.1 to 3.4 in male docto rs, and from 2.5 to 5.7 in female doctors, respectively, as compared w ith the general population, and from 1.5 to 3.8 in males and from 3.7 to 4.5 in females, respectively, as compared with other professionals. The crude suicide mortality rate was about the same in male and femal e doctors. Conclusion. In all studies the suicide rates among doctors were higher than those in the general population and among other acade mic occupational groups.