The DOI matches its Crossref record; 14 of the 20 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Physician Suicide in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Open accessAbstract
Physician burnout is a common problem among US physicians. Burnout has been associated with absenteeism, mood disorders, and medical errors. Over the last several decades, physician burnout has become more prevalent because of increasing workloads, increasing administrative burden, and time spent on electronic medical records, among several other reasons. The rate of suicidal ideation in physicians is almost twice as high as the general population. In addition, studies on mortality related to suicide show that the rates of suicides in physicians are consistently higher than in the general population. Firearms are the most common suicide method in both groups, while physicians are more likely to use poisoning and blunt force trauma, as physicians who committed suicide were more likely to have benzodiazepines, barbiturates, or antipsychotics detectable in their blood. Unfortunately, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) brought to the surface multiple prevailing issues in the US healthcare system, including physician burnout and the prevalence of suicidality among physicians in the recent past. With this editorial, we plan to discuss the current understanding of the impact on physician suicide in the context of COVID-19.
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“physician burnout is strongly associated with higher rates of physician suicide, increased medical errors and worse patient care outcomes.4 5”
From Effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions on the well-being of healthcare workers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2024) · cites this paper as [4]
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Citations
Cites
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Ong, N. Y., Teo, F. J. J., Ee, J. Z. Y., Yau, C. E., Thumboo, J., Tan, H. K., & Ng, Q. X. (2024) · General Psychiatry · doi:10.1136/gpsych-2023-101115 · Cited by 93
A machine learning analysis of COVID-19 mental health data
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“However, social support for HCWs dealing with mental health issues was not as readily available as it should be, even though the resources had been prepared for their use.(15) Although previous studies have indicated that positive resources and support in individuals’ social networks improve their ability to acquire a…”
ResultDu, W. D., Jia, Y. J., Hu, F. H., Ge, M., Cheng, Y. J., Qu, X., & Chen, H. L. (2023) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.07.040 · Cited by 24
Effects of fatigue on anaesthetist well-being and patient safety: a narrative review.
Ippolito, M., Einav, S., Giarratano, A., & Cortegiani, A. (2024) · British Journal of Anaesthesia · doi:10.1016/j.bja.2024.03.017 · Cited by 15
Metadata
- Authors
- Laboe, C. W., Jain, A., Bodicherla, K. P., & Pathak, M.
- Affiliations
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Jain, Ankit
- ORCID
- Jain, Ankit
- Venue
- Cureus
- Published
- 2021-11-06
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- e19313-e19313
- ISSN
- 2168-8184 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8648129
- OpenAlex
- W3211487817
- Cited by
- 39
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 2
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Cureus (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Keywords
- physician suicide, physician burnout, suicidal ideation, COVID-19 pandemic, suicide methods, firearm suicide, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, antipsychotic drugs, physician workload, administrative burden, electronic health records, healthcare system stress
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