For those outside the medical profession, it took a global pandemic to finally understand how pervasive distress and suicide are among medical professionals, particularly surgeons.
For James Harrop, MD, it was made real years earlier by a colleague he'd trained alongside and worked with for decades — "one of the best surgeons I've ever seen" who, one day, just wasn't there.
Lost in his own work, it wasn't until Harrop, a professor of neurological and orthopedic surgery at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, read an article in The New England Journal of Medicine and realized his friend Michael Weinstein, MD, MPH, had been profoundly depressed for years and was hospitalized for his own safety.
Weinstein recovered and later gave grand rounds at Thomas Jefferson University, where he is an associate professor of surgery in the Acute Care Surgery Division. But the story stuck with Harrop.
"I said to Mike afterward, I've known you for 20 years and, retrospectively, going back, I never saw a single sign that you were depressed, sad, or had any issues, and he said to me 'that's because I did everything I could to make sure no one knew I had a problem,'" Harrop said during a talk on physician suicide on May 4 at the recent American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) 2024 Annual Meeting.
"And that scared me because we need to help these people, we need to identify who they are."
Surgeons at Greater Risk
Studies have reported that suicide and suicidal ideation are nearly twice as common among physicians compared with among the general population. Among 9175 physicians surveyed in the 2023 Medscape Physician Suicide Report, 9% had considered suicide, and 1% had attempted it. The average for US adults is 4.9% and 0.5%, respectively.
Surgeons are at particularly high risk. A 2011 survey of 7905 US surgeons found that 1 in 16 (6.3%) had considered suicide in the previous year. A post-pandemic survey of more than 600 surgeons and surgical trainees reported that one in seven had suicidal ideation.
It's often estimated that between 300 and 400 physicians die by suicide each year in the United States, but exact numbers are not known. Recent updated estimates from the National Violent Death Reporting System put the number at 119 physician suicides annually.
Notably, that's no better than data reported more than 50 years ago in the landmark policy paper The Sick Physician: Impairment by Psychiatric Disorders, Including Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. It sounded the alarm on poor mental health in physicians and reported that 100 doctors died by suicide annually — the equivalent of the average medical school graduating class at the time.
"If I take my med school class and double it, that's how many physicians die each year," Harrop said. "And here's the bad news, it starts in medical school."
Research shows higher rates of depression and suicidal ideation in medical students and residents than in other graduates, with rates varying by stage of training, he noted.
In a multischool study, 12% of medical students and residents had probable major depression, 9.2% mild/moderate depression, and suicidal ideation jumped from 6.6% in the first year of medical school to 9.4% in year 4.
A recent AANS survey of 346 neurosurgery residents revealed 67% had burnout, and 41% seriously considered quitting. Burnout rose to a high of 76% in the second year and decreased to 49% and 54% in years 3 and 4, respectively.
Inadequate operating room exposure, hostile faculty, and stressors outside work were tied to burnout, whereas mentorship was linked to a threefold lower likelihood of burnout.
Notably, a 2019 study conservatively estimated that the annual cost of burnout-related physician turnover and reduced clinical hours was $4.6 billion nationally and $7600 per employed physician for an organization.
"We need to be kinder to each other, to look out for each other, and to talk to each other," Harrop told conference attendees.
'Death by a 1000 Cuts'
A host of factors are associated with physician suicide including long work hours, delayed gratification, difficulty balancing work and home life, changing healthcare systems, lawsuits, and the unique ability to prescribe medications, said Harrop.
"In my life, I think of it as death by 1000 cuts. Every day I come in, you've got another person attacking you," he said, referencing 'Death by 1000 Cuts': Medscape National Physician Burnout & Suicide Report 2021.
Harrop told Medscape Medical News that talking with numerous experts in this field has made him appreciate that anyone is at a risk for suicide.
"The problem is an overload of external resources crushing your existence to the point that you become paralyzed and make the irrational thought that the best solution is to end your life," he said.
Ann Stroink, MD, immediate past president of the AANS, said in an interview that one potential trigger for burnout is the current shortage of neurosurgeons in the United States, which has led to increased workloads and potential sleep deprivation among existing neurosurgeons.
"To address this critical issue, we've been advocating through legislative channels for additional Medicare[-funded] slots" to train more neurosurgeons, she said. "It's imperative that we take proactive steps to ensure that our healthcare system can sustainably meet the needs of patients, while also supporting the well-being of our neurosurgical professionals."
The AANS is also advocating for decreased regulatory burdens associated with Medicare and insurance coverage, such as prior authorization, to help alleviate the administrative burdens that often contribute to burnout among its members, Stroink said.
A Model for Suicide Prevention
Harrop emphasized that suicide is preventable and that there is "some good news." Turning to another high-risk profession, he noted that the US Air Force was able to reduce its suicide rate by 42.7% between 1994 and 1998 by doing three basic things.
The agency established a central surveillance database, restructured prevention services, and, more importantly, began conducting annual suicide prevention and awareness training, using gatekeepers to channel at-risk personnel to appropriate agencies and performing mental health questionnaires at enrollment and annually.
Similarly, education, screening, and access to mental health treatment are core recommendations for a national response to depression and suicide in physician trainees, said Harrop, who noted that his own hospital has started using the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item for its staff.
Asked by Medscape Medical News how much progress has been made since The Sick Physician report, Harrop said, "we are probably doing worse" in terms of the number of physician suicides, but "on a positive note, we are better with resources and acknowledgement that a problem exists."
He noted that the AANS, which has published a physician burnout series on its Neurosurgery Blog, has shown great interest in this topic and is working to spread the word to help neurosurgeons. "My simple talk has led to me being approached by numerous people and healthcare organizations on how to further focus resources and prevention of this problem."
Asked the one thing he would tell his friend, Michael Weinstein, a fellow surgeon, or trainee who's struggling, Harrop said, "I am here for you, and we will get over these temporary problems, which are not significant in the big picture of what you mean to the world."
Harrop reported serving as an advisor for Ethicon and Spiderwort.
Patrice Wendling is a medical journalist based in Chicago.