M***D
发帖数: 249 | 1 Suicide and the Young Physician
By Alexandra Sowa McPartland
Graduating from medical school and starting residency training should be one
of the most exciting times in a physician’s career. Instead, for two newly
-minted New York City doctors, who ended their lives within a week of each
other this summer, this period marked a morbid end. They represent a tragic
and rarely discussed phenomenon in the medical profession: Doctors commit
suicide at a rate more than twice the national average. Every year
approximately 400 physicians take their own lives. That is roughly one per
day, or the equivalent of two entire graduating medical classes each year.
As a recent graduate of an internal-medicine residency, I know that
physician depression and suicide are not routinely discussed in medical
school or training. Significant time is given in medical education on how to
recognize depression and suicidal thoughts in patients, but never once did
I hear of my own increased risk of suicide.
One might expect that older physicians, after years in an emotionally and
often physically taxing profession, bear the burden of an increased suicide
risk. But it is really a phenomenon of young physicians. Suicide accounts
for 26 percent of deaths among physicians aged 25 to 39, as compared to 11
percent of deaths in the same age group in the general population.
How can it be that physicians, whose lives are spent providing care, are not
seeking their own necessary care?
It does not take long for physical and mental exhaustion to overtake a young
doctor. A 2006 study at the University of Pennsylvania demonstrated that
over the course of the first post-graduate year of training, commonly known
as “intern” year, rates of burnout–a triad of symptoms comprised of
emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a sense of decreased personal
accomplishment–soared from 4.3 to 55.3 percent. Not surprisingly, increased
rates of burnout were associated with increased rates of moderate
depression, affecting nearly one-third of interns by the end of the year.
Physician training can be an extremely stressful undertaking, from managing
crushing education debt while receiving a minimal salary, to an 80-hour
workweek, to having to keep up with the frenetic pace of evolving medical
knowledge, all while being responsible for life-and-death decisions. However
, none of these reasons–individually or combined–can fully explain why
doctors have significantly higher rates of suicide. The complex issue is
made only more complex by silence among medical professionals.
One recent study found that only half of depressed interns obtained mental
health services. How can it be that physicians, whose lives are spent
providing care, are not seeking their own necessary care? Responses for
avoiding help include lack of time, lack of confidentiality, a desire to
manage their mental health independently, and professional stigma. Nearly
half of the interns in the study believed their colleagues would have less
confidence in them as medical providers if they sought psychiatric treatment
. Threat of judgment from other physicians serves as one of the largest
roadblocks to seeking psychiatric care. And yet, there is not one doctor I
know who would ever want a colleague to suffer. How can the medical
community begin to rectify this self-destructive paradox? As physicians, we
believe that initiating a dialogue with our patients is the best way to
enact healthy behavior changes. The profession would do well to adopt this
same technique to best care for our own. | M****a
发帖数: 577 | 2 话题不错，不过文章写的虎头蛇尾, 感觉作者上大学时在校报干过，喜欢夸夸其谈，典
型的pre-med。 | g*n
发帖数: 538 | 3 悲剧。去年听说有个program rad/onc intern 自杀了，留下老婆孩子，挺惨的。
one
newly
tragic
【在 M***D 的大作中提到】
: Suicide and the Young Physician
: By Alexandra Sowa McPartland
: Graduating from medical school and starting residency training should be one
: of the most exciting times in a physician’s career. Instead, for two newly
: -minted New York City doctors, who ended their lives within a week of each
: other this summer, this period marked a morbid end. They represent a tragic
: and rarely discussed phenomenon in the medical profession: Doctors commit
: suicide at a rate more than twice the national average. Every year
: approximately 400 physicians take their own lives. That is roughly one per
: day, or the equivalent of two entire graduating medical classes each year.
| M***D
发帖数: 249 | 4 "As a recent graduate of an internal medicine residency…"，所以作者是一个刚
完成住院医培训的内科医生。 | M****a
发帖数: 577 | 5 哈，我没说清楚，她的文章的风格是pre-med。
【在 M***D 的大作中提到】
: "As a recent graduate of an internal medicine residency…"，所以作者是一个刚
: 完成住院医培训的内科医生。
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