Mental Health
Mar 2, 2021 09:29 PM By Robert Calandra According to one survey, almost a quarter of doctors have felt suicidal. janbommes / Flickr
In the past 20 years, the suicide rate in the US among those 16 to 64 years of age has risen 40%. Hidden inside that percentage are physician suicides the completed ones.
In the past year alone, we, as a country, have lost about one physician a day.
Medical students and doctors battle the same mental health challenges that we do: depression, anxiety, loneliness, and alcohol and drug abuse now pile on the rigors of medical school, the pressure of long work hours, and making weighty decisions about their patients’ health. And for good measure, add in the weariness and abject helplessness of fighting an invisible virus for the past year. Those are the ingredients for a toxic mental health cocktail.