Hundreds of physicians dies by suicide each year
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — America loses 300 to 400 physicians by suicide every year, according to healthcare staffing company CHG Healthcare.
“That means we lose a physician from suicide every day,” local physician Dr. Mercy Hylton said. Hylton worked as an emergency care physician for two decades and now owns a lifestyle and dietary care practice, called Mind Over Metabolism , located in Brownsburg.
Hylton shared her thoughts in a recent article titled “What Killed the Canary? Hard lessons we must learn from physician suicide.” She shared her insight with News 8, too.
Experts say the average medical student starts their journey with a similar rate of depression as their non-medical student peers. As their years of training grow, so too does their depression and overall burnout.
“And our rates of suicide are twice as high as the general population,” Hylton said. “It isn’t often talked about openly, so we don’t know. And, as far as I know, there’s not any from organization collecting that information.”