An unprecedented number of medical professionals are committing suicide these days, and one doctor is concerned that not enough is being done both to address the problem and to prepare the victims’ colleagues to deal with this escalating crisis.
Comparing it to the current opioid epidemic, Dr. Vinita Parkash, an associate professor of pathology at the Yale School of Medicine tells the story in a recent piece for The Hill of her own junior colleague who committed suicide a little more than a week before her 35th birthday.
Dr. Parkash had been a mentor, of sorts, to the victim as she transitioned from her fellowship into practice. Upon receiving news of the suicide, Dr. Parkash says that her own department continued about its business as if nothing had happened.
That’s because physician suicides are becoming increasingly common, outpacing suicide rates in nearly every other segment of society. And while experts can’t pinpoint a precise cause, one of them, suggests Dr. Parkash, is the erosion of public trust in the medical profession.
Since many modern doctors function as little more than Big Pharma pill-pushers, the public’s confidence in their supposed expertise has never been lower. Roughly 60 percent of average citizens, and a shocking 80 percent of doctors themselves, now admit that they don’t trust the drug industry, and believe that drug companies routinely lie about the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceuticals.
This is hardly the reputation that the medical industry at large wants attached to itself. And yet, this is the reality that budding medical students and medical professionals alike now face – which is clearly taking its toll on their well-being.
Statistics show that as many as 400 physicians were reported to have taken their lives just in the year 2016. And that number seems to be increasing year after year, particularly among female medical students and professionals who, for whatever reason, simply can’t deal with the profession.
