Hawton K et al., 2001 [31]

Suicide in doctors: a study of risk according to gender, seniority and specialty in medical practitioners in England and Wales, 1979-1995

Two hundred and twenty-three (223) medical practitioners in the National Health Service who died by suicide or undetermined cause

To investigate the suicide risk of doctors in England and Wales, according to gender, seniority and specialty

There is a high risk of suicide in female physicians, but male physicians seem to be at lower risk than the male general population. There were significant differences between specialties and anesthetists, community health physicians, general practitioners, and psychiatrists having significantly increased rates compared with physicians from general hospitals.

MEDLINE/ PubMed

Suicidal verdicts were compared with open verdicts, and some of them possibly were not suicides. Another limitation is the fact that, during data collection, the death certificate or official Y records were considered information, and in some cases, they could be deceiving or incomplete.

Juel K, Mosbech J, Hansen ES., 1999 [30]

Mortality and causes of death among Danish medical doctors 1973-1992.

21,943 physicians, 6012 of whom were women.

To examine the mortality pattern of Danish doctors for the period 1973-1992

A historical prospective cohort study based on the membership register of the Danish Medical Association.

The suicide rate was increased, mainly due to the high number of suicides by poisoning. Compared with the general population, the physicians’ mortality was low, but the mortality due to external causes was increased, mainly due to an excessive number of suicides.

MEDLINE/ PubMed

Data do not enable to conclude if the difference among genders in the mortality is a recent or non-recent phenomenon. Only few women graduated in the previous period of the century, and there are significant differences in the selection of women who started working in such profession, in the beginning of the century, and those who started within some years more recently.