A high suicide rate??

[brains]

I was talking to this doctor the other day at orientation for my new job and he was asking me about how I want to apply for med college. I told him I want to specialize in anesthesia, and he immediately told me that they have a high suicide rate and that they're very stressed out about their job. I was totally bugged by this; one would think he should have given me words of encouragement instead. I didn't bother to find out what exactly he specialized in,but I do know that he wanted to start a sleep center. Would this make anyone else mad, or am I overreacting? Also, by reading some of the topics here, most of the anesthesiologists seem to be very happy. Right?

 

[InductionAgent]

From http://www.merck.com/mrkshared/mmanual/section15/chapter190/190a.jsp

"The rate among physicians is high largely because of women physicians, whose annual rate of suicide is 4 times that of a matched general population. For physicians < 40 yr old, suicide is the leading cause of death. Overdosage with drugs is a more common method among men and women physicians than among the general population, possibly because physicians have easy access to drugs and know what constitutes a fatal dose. By medical specialty, the rate is highest among psychiatrists."

While psychiatrists take the prize, anesthesiologists are also at obvious risks given that drug overdosage is the favored method among physicians.

Anesthesiologists have the highest rate of substance abuse among physicians. This is not a surprise given:

1) anesthesiologists are interested/curious in the effects of drugs
2) they are wired for instant gratification - like to see the results quickly upon administration of drug
3) anesthesiologists have less stigma/fear about narcotics since they administer them daily to patients who generally do well
4) anesthesiologists have extensive access to narcotics

While the suicide rate among anesthesiologists might be higher, paradoxically job satisfaction and happiness seem at least comparable to average.

 

[seattledoc]

maybe psyc and anesthesia self select people prone to suicide...perhaps a certain personality or something is attracted to the fields and that particular personality type also has a higher than normal suicide rate. Just off the top of my head, absolutly no data to back this up.

 

[manixter]

I was talking to this doctor the other day at orientation for my new job and he was asking me about how I want to apply for med college. I told him I want to specialize in anesthesia, and he immediately told me that they have a high suicide rate and that they're very stressed out about their job. I was totally bugged by this; one would think he should have given me words of encouragement instead. I didn't bother to find out what exactly he specialized in,but I do know that he wanted to start a sleep center. Would this make anyone else mad, or am I overreacting? Also, by reading some of the topics here, most of the anesthesiologists seem to be very happy. Right?

Let's not forget the control freak nature of anesthesia, which might predispose us to the "yeah, I use fentanyl/ ketamine/ propofol at home, but I don't really have a *problem*".
I agree with a previous poster that all of medicine can be high-stress, but anesthesiologists are the ones working in the candy store and are most likely to use some of the high-power pharmacuticals that are most likely to get us killed.
Personally, if I was in internal medicine, watching hypertensive, diabetic, morbidly obese people come in day in and day out, I would have overdosed on oxycontin a long time ago.
The key thing to chosing a specialty is maximizing the things you like, while minimizing the things that drive you nuts.
--mir