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A new study released last week expands on the stressors that could lead to physician suicide. The study's goal is to identify job-related problems to prevent physician suicide.

You can read the study here.

The authors looked at the National Violent Death Reporting System database between 2003 and 2018 and isolated 200 physician death narratives. Nearly all of them had an association with early retirement due to a physical ailment. Professional investigations were also a common theme showing that loss of career due to outside factors was a major driver in physician death.

The authors noted that while the causes overlapped with a prior study on nurse suicides, physicians had more access to mental health support post-job loss.

The authors identified a few solutions to address these issues:

• Make more anonymous screening tools and treatment options available to physicians
• Fund the Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act
• Eliminate "invasive" medical license application questions on mental health or substance use