[About suicide methods of physicians, medical personnel and related professions]

A collective of 131 suicides of physicians (n = 40), female and male nurses (n = 38), pharmacists/chemist/biologists (n = 17) and medical/chemical assistant personnel (n = 36) was evaluated with regard to the method of suicide. Preferred methods were ingestion of medicaments orally (29%) and by infusion/injection (18%), hanging (13%), cyanide poisoning (10%), jumping from great height (10%) and drowning (8%). The results were compared with a control group (n = 739: hanging 32%, oral ingestion of medicaments 16%, jumping from great height 13%, shooting 9%, drowning 8%, railway suicides 7%). Methods such as infusion/injection (anesthesiologists) and cyanide poisoning (chemists/chemical staff) being typical of occupation were over-represented within the first group, however, at the same time concentrated on specialized subgroups. Intoxications by infusion/injection and medicaments predominated even more clearly in physicians (58%) than in the total collective.

The tendency to a method of suicide being typical of the profession rises among physicians and related occupations with the degree of specialization (increasing knowledge, easier access to appropriate drugs and methods). Medical/chemical education and occupation alone is not yet associated with such a predisposition.