Physician Suicide: Addressing the Crisis

President’s Paragraph

By Cheryl Hurd, MD, TCMS President

This article was originally published in the September/October 2026 issue of Tarrant County Physician.

It’s time to break the silence on physician suicide. This may be an exceedingly difficult topic for many of you; perhaps you have experience with losing a colleague or a loved one to suicide. Some of you may even have your own struggles. Unfortunately, physicians still have one of the highest suicide rates of any profession, with 300 to 400 physicians a year dying by suicide in the US.^3,7 Here are some staggering facts: one in six physicians has thought about or attempted suicide.⁴ Physicians in total die by suicide at twice the rate of the general population.^2,11 Suicide is the leading cause of death among male residents and the second leading cause of death among female residents.³ Medical students are three times more likely to die by suicide than their peers of the same age.^3,7 Our residents are suffering. Our students are suffering. And we are suffering.

“Physician, heal thyself” is a biblical proverb that is often taken out of context. It does not mean we should treat our own illnesses. Rather, it reminds us that physicians, too, must care for our mental and physical health by getting support from those who have the knowledge and training to help us. Too often, physicians continue caring for others while ignoring or delaying care for themselves—whether for something as minor as a cold or as serious as heart disease or suicidal thoughts. Even today, society often assumes physicians do not get sick or struggle with mental illness. Many of us were trained to believe that acknowledging illness could be seen as weakness, so we press on without seeking care, even as we expect our patients to do otherwise. Physicians who seek help may also fear consequences with licensure, credentialing, or patient trust.^3,7,13 Our self-reliance and perfectionism can make asking for help even harder. And although we are trained to recognize risk factors in our patients, we may miss them in ourselves or our colleagues. This potential blind spot is especially concerning because physicians share many of the same suicide risk factors as the general population, including mental health disorders, impaired relationships, and self-criticism.^1,5,7

Burnout from high workloads, time pressures, moral distress, and relationship discord is a real issue for physicians. There are additional institutional and regulatory pressures as well, often associated with administrative burden and an increased sense that autonomy is being lost.^3,6,7 Decreased efficiency and errors may also occur.^4,6 There is a perceived lack of psychological safety for physicians. Let’s face it, our cultural norms discourage vulnerability and seeking help for ourselves.^7,9,13 Yet the relationships we hold, the identities we carry, and the quiet pressures we internalize all play a role in suicide risk. So how can we help? I have a couple of ideas.

Last year at Burnett School of Medicine at TCU, several faculty, staff, and medical students had a fantastic session with the program manager for the Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation. She told the story of the foundation’s young namesake, Jordan Harris, who died by suicide shortly before graduating from college. Her parents created this foundation to help prevent others from experiencing the loss of a loved one dying by suicide. Not only was this educational, but it was also a training session on how to respond in these situations. Anyone can help prevent suicide. Just observing a physician, or anyone for that matter, in distress, and reaching out, can save a life. This training program is called QPR, which stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer. Like CPR, any person can be trained to effectively provide QPR—they do not have to be a healthcare professional. The American Hospital Association developed an entire guidebook that looked not only at data regarding healthcare worker suicide but also data about effective prevention strategies that hospitals could implement.12

Thursday, September 17, is National Physician Suicide Awareness Day (#NPSADay). This is now an annual opportunity to break the silence and raise awareness of mental health issues and suicide in physicians. A partnership between The Physicians Foundation, All In: Wellbeing First for Healthcare, and the Dr. Lorna Breen Foundation was formed to address physician suicide with a particular campaign called Vital Signs. This campaign is designed to train organizations, clinics, and even individuals in suicide prevention. In this campaign, Vital Signs refers to warning signs of impending physician decompensation or suicide. This partnership recommends a variety of prevention measures including recognizing warning signs, encouraging mental health reflection, sharing suicide prevention resources, checking in with physicians who do not appear to be doing well, removing intrusive mental health questions to licensure and hospital privilege applications, and creating a culture of well-being in organizations. They also have toolkits and even training slides for organizations to use (for free).^12,13,14

And let’s not forget our own TCMS wellness program, which I mentioned in my first President’s Paragraph. Our Tarrant County Medical Society Physician Wellness Program facilitates confidential, non-reportable help with coaching sessions and four complimentary counseling visits for members OR spouses, including couples counseling. The website is listed with the mental health resources I have shared below; it is sponsored by Tarrant County Academy of Medicine.

We entered this profession to heal—to listen to comfort, to save lives. Yet somewhere along the way, many of us learned to silence our own pain. We learned to wear resilience like armor, to treat vulnerability as weakness, and to fear that asking for help might cost us our careers. But silence has a cost. And too often, that cost is a life. Breaking the silence is not just an act of courage—it is an act of care. It is how we honor those we have lost, protect those still struggling, and reshape the culture of medicine into one that heals its healers. The question is no longer whether we should speak up. It is how we create spaces where speaking up is safe, supported, and sustained.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
– Lao Tzu

References:

1. H. Makhija, J. E. Davidson, K. C. Lee, A. Barnes, A. Choflet, and S. Zisook, “National Incidence of Physician Suicide and Associated Features,” JAMA Psychiatry 82, no. 5 (2025): 451–458, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.4816.
2. D. Duarte, M. M. El-Hagrassy, T. C. E. Couto, W. Gurgel, F. Fregni, and H. Correa, “Male and Female Physician Suicidality: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” JAMA Psychiatry 77, no. 6 (2020): 587–597, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.0011.
3. H. H. McClafferty, D. K. Hubbard, D. Foradori, et al., “Physician Health and Wellness,” Pediatrics 150, no. 5 (2022): e2022059665, https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2022-059665.
4. Jon McKenna, “Medscape Physicians and Suicide Report 2025: ‘A Lot More Still Needs to Be Done,’” Medscape, February 21, 2025.
5. K. J. Gold, T. L. Schwenk, and A. Sen, “Physician Suicide in the United States: Updated Estimates from the National Violent Death Reporting System,” Psychology, Health & Medicine 27, no. 7 (2022): 1563–1575, https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2021.1903053.
6. Constance Guille and Srijan Sen, “Burnout, Depression, and Diminished Well-Being among Physicians,” New England Journal of Medicine 391 (2024): 1519–1527, https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra2302878.
7. S. B. Harvey, R. M. Epstein, N. Glozier, K. Petrie, J. Strudwick, A. Gayed, K. Dean, and M. Henderson, “Mental Illness and Suicide among Physicians,” The Lancet 398, no. 10303 (2021): 920–930, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01596-8.
8. US Preventive Services Task Force, “Screening for Depression and Suicide Risk in Adults: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement,” JAMA 329, no. 23 (2023): 2057–2067, https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2023.9297.
9. M. A. Oquendo and A. Porras-Segovia, “Barriers for the Research, Prevention, and Treatment of Suicidal Behavior,” Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences 46 (2020): 25–40, https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2020_159.
10. S. K. Doupnik, B. Rudd, T. Schmutte, et al., “Association of Suicide Prevention Interventions with Subsequent Suicide Attempts, Linkage to Follow-up Care, and Depression Symptoms for Acute Care Settings: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” JAMA Psychiatry 77, no. 10 (2020): 1021–1030, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.1586.
11. C. Zimmermann, S. Strohmaier, H. Herkner, N. Niederkrotenthaler, and E. Schernhammer, “Suicide Rates among Physicians Compared with the General Population in Studies from 20 Countries: Gender-Stratified Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” BMJ 386 (2024): e078964, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-078964.
12. American Hospital Association, “Suicide Prevention in the Health Care Workforce,” accessed August 10, 2026, https://www.aha.org/suicideprevention/health-care-workforce.
13. American Medical Association, “Preventing Physician Suicide,” updated August 7, 2025, https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/preventing-physician-suicide.
14. The Physicians Foundation, “Campaign: Vital Signs,” accessed August 10, 2026, https://physiciansfoundation.org/research/campaign-vital-signs/.