Physician Suicide: the Psychiatrist’s Role (IN: The Impaired Physician, ed. by S C Scheiber and B B Doyle)

Describes the scope of physician suicide & outlines some of the special problems pertinent to phsyician suicide. Medical school curricula need to promote more self-awareness of emotional needs; if physicians cannot heal themselves, perhaps they can learn to recognize the need for assistance. Intervention requires that doctors believe that anyone, regardless of status, can be suicidal. Postvention is needed to offer survivors an opportunity to deal with their loss in a therapeutic way. (35 refs.)