Nobody Does it better - Docs Excel at Suicide

"Medical know-how puts doctors at greater suicide risk; new campaign aims to ease stigma"...When you stop and think about the pressures...physicians live every day with life and death situations and most of us outside might tend to forget about this from time to time...stress levels are high..and then add on some economic pressures on keeping a practice open with compensation getting lower all the time...well that's enough to depress anyone....we rely on him/her to be there for us in our times of need....BD

There's a grim, rarely talked-about twist to all that medical know-how doctors learn to save lives: It makes them especially good at ending their own. An estimated 300 to 400 U.S. doctors kill themselves each year — a suicide rate thought to be higher than in the general population, although exact figures are hard to come by.

Depressed doctors frequently decide to self-medicate but don't seek psychotherapy that could help them deal with underlying issues, said Dr. Glenn Siegel, who runs a suburban Chicago program that treats doctors with drug abuse, depression and other psychiatric problems.