Department of Psychiatry, Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College, Karnal, Haryana, India.
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2022 Jun;68(4):718-728. doi: 10.1177/00207640211011365. Epub 2021 Apr 27.
Despite having one of the world's largest medical education consortium, India lacks a comprehensive and nationally representative data on suicide deaths among medical students and physicians unlike the one found in most of the developed nations of the world.
We aimed to explore the different characteristics of suicide deaths among medical students, residents and physicians in India over a decade (2010-2019).
Content analysis of all suicide death reports among medical students, residents and physicians available from online news portals and other publicly available sites was done. Search was done retrospectively using pertinent search words individually or in combination with language restricted to Hindi and English and timed from January 2010 to December 2019. Reports on completed suicide by allopathic medical students, residents and physicians from India were included. Socio-demographic and suicidological variables were analysed using R software.
A total of 358 suicide deaths among medical students (125), residents (105) and physicians (128) were reported between 2010 and 2019. Around 7 out of 10 suicides happened before the age of 30 and had mean age 29.9 (±12.2) years. Female residents and physicians were younger than their male counterparts at the time of suicide. Overall maximum suicide deaths were concentrated in South India except the state of Kerala. The specialty of anesthesiology (22.4%) followed by obstetrics-gynaecology (16.0%) had the highest suicide deaths. Violent suicide methods were more commonly used by all, with hanging being the most common mean of suicide. Academic stress among medical students (45.2%) and residents (23.1%), and marital discord among physicians (26.7%) were the most noticeable reasons for suicide. Mental health problems were the next most common reason in medical students (24%) and physicians (20%) while harassment (20.5%) was in residents. Twenty six percent had exhibited suicide warning signs and only 13% had ever sought psychiatric help before ending their lives. A total of nine reports of suicide pact were found with the average deaths per pact being 2.4 and predominantly driven by financial reasons.
Academic stress among medical students and residents, and marital discord in physicians emerged as the key reasons for suicide. However, this preventable domain should be further explored through focused research. This is the first of its kind study from India which attempted to explore this vital yet neglected public health issue using the most feasible and practical method of online news content-based analysis.
尽管印度拥有世界上最大的医学教育联盟之一，但与世界上大多数发达国家不同，印度缺乏关于医学生和医生自杀死亡的全面和全国代表性数据。
我们旨在探讨过去十年（2010-2019 年）印度医学生、住院医师和医生自杀死亡的不同特征。
对来自在线新闻门户和其他公开可用网站的医学生、住院医师和医生自杀死亡报告进行内容分析。使用相关搜索词单独或组合进行回顾性搜索，语言限于印地语和英语，时间从 2010 年 1 月至 2019 年 12 月。报告包括来自印度的全医学学生、住院医师和医生的自杀完成情况。使用 R 软件分析社会人口统计学和自杀学变量。
2010 年至 2019 年期间，共报告了 358 名医学生（125 名）、住院医师（105 名）和医生（128 名）自杀。大约 70%的自杀发生在 30 岁之前，平均年龄为 29.9（±12.2）岁。女性住院医师和医生自杀时比男性同事年轻。总体而言，除喀拉拉邦外，印度南部的自杀死亡人数最多。麻醉学（22.4%）和妇产科（16.0%）的自杀死亡人数最多。所有自杀者都更常使用暴力自杀方法，其中上吊是最常见的自杀手段。医学生（45.2%）和住院医师（23.1%）的学业压力以及医生（26.7%）的婚姻不和是自杀的最明显原因。精神健康问题是医学生（24%）和医生（20%）的第二大常见原因，而住院医师（20.5%）则受到骚扰。26%的人表现出自杀警告迹象，只有 13%的人在结束生命之前曾寻求过精神科帮助。总共发现了 9 份自杀协议报告，每份协议的平均死亡人数为 2.4，主要由经济原因驱动。
医学生和住院医师的学业压力以及医生的婚姻不和是自杀的主要原因。然而，这一可预防的领域应该通过重点研究进一步探讨。这是印度首例此类研究，试图使用最可行和实用的在线新闻内容分析方法探讨这一重要但被忽视的公共卫生问题。
