Physician Suicide - Part 3

Pranay Sinha, a first year internal medicine resident at Yale-New Haven Hospital comments further on the growing topic of physician suicide in his scarily truthful and profound article "Why Do Doctors Commit Suicide?" for The New York Times. In his article, Sinha focuses our attention on new residents by first bringing attention to the recent tragic deaths of two new physicians, both in their second month of residency. He accurately describes how the transition out of med school and into practice is associated with immense stress, pressure and demands, and is a time when many are at their most vulnerable. That combined with a lack of mental health and wellness supports in residency programs and a culture which teaches residents and students to repress their emotions, fears and doubts rather than voicing them can lead to a troublesome and sometimes deadly combination. A must read for all med students and residents!

"While acute stress, social isolation, pre-existing mental illness and substance abuse may be obvious factors to consider, we must also ask if there are aspects of medical culture that might push troubled residents beyond their reserves of emotional resilience. There is a strange machismo that pervades medicine. Doctors, especially fledgling doctors like me, feel pressure to project intellectual, emotional and physical prowess beyond what we truly possess...

We masquerade as strong and untroubled professionals even in our darkest and most self-doubting moments. How, then, are we supposed to identify colleagues in trouble — or admit that we may need help ourselves?"

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