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Conspiracy of Silence

A review commissioned by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has found that doctors are twice as likely to suicide as other people, with the risk of suicide even greater for female doctors.

The report, A Conspiracy of Silence: Emotional Health among Medical Practitioners, calls for a unified self-care program for medical practitioners across the country, including improved training and selection for medical students and the establishment of peer support groups for practising doctors.

Report author, Dr Danielle Clode, found that health care is a highly stressful occupation with personal and family life often being sacrificed to care for patients.

Doctors are particularly prone to work-related stress, with self-employed, rural and solo practitioners often working while sick and unable to take adequate sick leave, holidays and meet family commitments.

Depression, burn-out and psychiatric illness are very common among doctors, but few seek professional assistance.

A culture of overconfidence and self-sacrifice makes many doctors unwilling to seek help, sometimes with devastating consequences. Doctors are twice as likely to suicide as others, while female doctors are six times more likely to suicide than other women.

The repercussions of work-related stress also spread to members of the doctor’s family, with studies finding high rates of suicide among women married to doctors and psychiatrists reporting high attendance by doctor’s children.

The report concludes that a “culture of self-denial and altruism may seem appropriate in medical practice, yet taken to an extreme it may seriously impede a doctor’s ability to stay healthy and deliver quality health care to others.”

With figures indicating a rise in the incidence of depression among the general community, the government’s depression initiative, Beyondblue encourages people to seek assistance from their general practitioner. Yet the report notes, that “In Australia few GPs feel equipped to deal with mental health problems.”

If doctors are to continue to play a key role in the treatment and support of depression in the general community, there must be a national strategy to support doctors to deal with both their own emotional health issues and those of their patients, the report concludes.

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Last Modified: 8 November 2004