Suicide risk among physicians: a multivariate analysis.

It has been hypothesized that previous research on physician suicide has neglected a possible suppressor effect on suicide from a low risk of divorce among physicians. The present article addresses this question using data on 143,885 deaths from the 1990 National Mortality Detail Files. The results of a multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that when controls are introduced for marital status, gender, race, and other covariates of social status, physicians were 2.45 times more likely to die of suicide than the rest of the working age population. The results suggested that previous work, which had not controlled for the protective effect of marital status, might have underestimated the incidence of physician suicide.