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0 pointsshagie3y ago0 comments

Suicide in veterinary medicine: Let’s talk about it - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4266064/

> Several studies have identified a link between suicide and occupation (1), including the healthcare professions and our own profession. The rate of suicide in the veterinary profession has been pegged as close to twice that of the dental profession, more than twice that of the medical profession (2), and 4 times the rate in the general population (3).

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5 comments · 1 top-level

98codes3y ago· 4 in thread

Am I reading this right? Those in the dental profession commit suicide at 2x the rate of the general population?

duskwuff3y ago

You are correct, and why this is the case is an open question. I've heard theories ranging anywhere from the financial (a dental degree costs nearly as much as a medical degree, and the job prospects are more limited) to the physiological (long-term exposure to anaesthetic gases during oral surgery may cause mood changes).

saalweachter3y ago

I wonder how much of this is availability of means.

Firearm owners have higher suicide rates just because they have a reliable means at hand. Vets have euthanasia drugs, dentists have gas, doctors have various drugs. Is that taken into account?

ip263y ago

I have always assumed it is because they have to hurt people every day while looking them right in the eye. What must that do to someone? (who isn't a psychopath)

shagieOP3y ago

That is the statement there... and some of the other material on it.

https://digitaleditions.walsworth.com/publication/?i=758312&...

> Suicide rates among dentists and a perceived elevated risk for suicide have been debated in academic publications worldwide for decades.

> A 2011 study of the Danish population published in the November 2011 issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders found that dentists had higher age and gender-adjusted rate ratios for suicide and risk for suicide compared with the general population. It reports that dentists held the highest suicide rate at 7.18 percent for men and women combined, and that these suicides rates are much higher than the national average. The national average for men and women was reported as 0.42 percent. Male dentists held the highest suicide rate at 8.02 percent. Female dentists held the fourth highest suicide rate at 5.28 percent.

> In 2017, the British Dental Association found that 17.6% of the dentists they surveyed have seriously considered committing suicide.

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Dentists and Suicide: A Look at the Numbers - https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health/dentists-and-suicid...

> The Center for Disease Control’s most recent report in 2016 on “Suicide Rates by Industry and Occupation” does not list dentists separately, but rather groups them in with other healthcare workers, ranking eleventh. And yet, despite the lack of any hard evidence, the myth regarding dentists being the number one suicide occupation stubbornly persists, casting a negative light on the profession. Not only can this affect the well-being of practitioners, it can also negatively influence perceptions by patients and by students considering dentistry as a prospective career.

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