Preventing Physician Suicide

Stigma around mental health is ubiquitous in the medical establishment, and preventing sufferers from seeking help only makes matters worse, according to Michael F Myers MD.
“In conducting research for [my] book, I found that at least 10% to 15% of doctors who took their lives had received absolutely no treatment for the illness that drove them to [the] act because they were terrified to talk about their situation,” said Dr Myers.

“My colleagues and I, whose work focuses on physician health, are doing what we can to eliminate that hesitancy. I feel confident that we will make the study and practice of medicine healthy, fulfilling, and creative.”

Removing the stigma

Fearing consequences that will affect their training and career opportunities, including the ability to obtain licensure and credentialling, medical school graduates and practicing physicians can feel pressured to hide struggles with mental health. Dr Myers noted that in the United States, three independent groups are working to implement changes in questions asked on medical license applications to bring them into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Now there are laws in multiple US states disallowing questions about psychiatric history in applications for a new or renewed medical license,” Dr Myers said.

Citing other efforts to eliminate the stigma of mental health among physicians, Dr Myers mentioned that the family of Lorna Breen MD—an emergency medicine physician who died from suicide while recovering from COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic—established the Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, which advocates for the professional well-being of health workers.

“The foundation’s mission is to help advocate for a world where seeking mental health services is universally viewed as a sign of strength—and one of its pillars is to make access to care safe and easy,” Dr Myers said.

Strategies for preventing suicide fall into primary, secondary, and tertiary domains. Primary interventions aim to mitigate stress in training and work environments. They include programmes intending to prepare potential medical school students for the realities of training and practice and initiatives promoting healthy lifestyles and targeting sources of stress, such as extended duty hours.

Secondary prevention strategies focus on identifying at-risk individuals and providing early intervention to normalise stress and minimise vulnerabilities as well as to encourage care seeking and enable access. As an example, Dr Myers mentioned the New York State Medical Society established a peer counselling programme.

“Unfortunately, it tends to be underutilised, and we are not sure why because there are a lot of first-person accounts about its effectiveness,” he said.

Other targets include ensuring that counselling with confidential firewalls is available at no cost or fully covered by insurance and accessible during a protected time for care. A support line for medical students and physicians in the US fits this model. Free, confidential, and anonymous, the toll-free number (1-888-409-0141) is served by more than 800 psychiatrists daily.

Tertiary prevention pertains to the provision of mental health treatment by professionals from various branches of healthcare, along with other supportive strategies. The latter includes support groups for physicians with psychiatric disorders and workplace policies allowing recovering physicians to return to work gradually or part-time.

Dr Myers pointed to a New York Times article in which columnist David Brooks reflected on the suicide of his lifelong friend, American ophthalmologist Dr Peter Marks. It was noted that Dr Marks found talking to his wife more helpful than talking to any of the experts.

“That gave me pause and was very hurtful given that psychotherapy, which is talk therapy, is the bedrock of the mental health field,” Dr Myers said. “I came away thinking how let down Dr Marks felt. We must redouble our efforts to make intimate (and lifesaving) connections with physicians feeling so desperate.”

Dr Myers spoke on this topic at AAO 2025 in Orlando, US.

Michael F Myers MD is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, SUNY Downstate Heath Sciences University, Brooklyn, New York, US. His latest book is Physicians With Lived Experience: How Their Stories Offer Clinical Guidance and his email is michael.myers@downstate.edu