Physicians are known to be a group of professionals who are at risk of taking their own lives. In this easy-to-read book, Dr. Michael Myers, a psychiatrist and specialist in physician health, attempts to explain the mystery of why some doctors, despite their calling and the adoration of their families, patients, students and colleagues, perish by suicide. He combines the powerful and gripping insights of dozens of bereaved people whom he interviewed for this project with disguised stories from his decades long clinical practice to shed some light on this national tragedy. The stigma attached to mental illness in doctors is ubiquitous and pernicious - and, because untreated illness is one of the major drivers to suicide, Dr. Myers argues that stigma must be fought with urgency and might. He makes across-the-board recommendations in an effort to prevent suicide in physicians and concludes that everyone has a role to play in saving a doctor's life. This is a book about heartbreak, loss, prevailing, growth, passion and hope. It's a book for doctors themselves, their families, those who train them, those who treat them and those who care about them.

In the wake of a suicide, the most troubling questions are invariably the most difficult to answer: How could we have known? What could we have done? And always, unremittingly: Why? Written by a clinical psychologist whose own life has been touched by suicide, this book offers the clearest account ever given of why some people choose to die. Drawing on extensive clinical and epidemiological evidence, as well as personal experience, Thomas Joiner brings a comprehensive understanding to seemingly incomprehensible behavior. Among the many people who have considered, attempted, or died by suicide, he finds three factors that mark those most at risk of death: the feeling of being a burden on loved ones; the sense of isolation; and, chillingly, the learned ability to hurt oneself. Joiner tests his theory against diverse facts taken from clinical anecdotes, history, literature, popular culture, anthropology, epidemiology, genetics, and neurobiology--facts about suicide rates among men and women; white and African-American men; anorexics, athletes, prostitutes, and physicians; members of cults, sports fans, and citizens of nations in crisis. The result is the most coherent and persuasive explanation ever given of why and how people overcome life's strongest instinct, self-preservation. Joiner's is a work that makes sense of the bewildering array of statistics and stories surrounding suicidal behavior; at the same time, it offers insight, guidance, and essential information to clinicians, scientists, and health practitioners, and to anyone whose life has been affected by suicide.

The book examines how the related disorders of burnout, anxiety, depression, and addiction, can lead to suicide and explores the influence of gender, culture, aging, and personal resilience on outcomes. In addition, it investigates ways to mitigate the impact of these factors to improve physician health and well-being.

In Physician Suicide Letters-Answered, Dr. Wible exposes the pervasive and largely hidden medical culture of bullying, hazing, and abuse that claims the lives of countless medical students, doctors, and patients. Now-for the first time released to the public-here are private letters and last words from our doctors who could no longer bear the pain of an abusive medical system. What you don't know about medical training and culture can kill you. Dr. Wible takes you behind the white coat and into the mind, heart, and soul of our doctors-and provides answers.

This book provides a reference and contextual basis for depression, burnout and suicide among oncology and other medical professionals. Oncology as a medical subspecialty is at a unique apex of this crisis. While the same pressures in medicine certainly apply to oncologists, oncology is particularly stressful as a changing field with diverse patient and societal expectations for outcomes. In addition to experiencing the stress of caring for patients that could succumb to their cancer diagnoses, these professionals are regularly confronted with an onslaught of new medical information and a landscape that is changing at a breakneck pace. These are just a few factors involved in the increasing rates of burnout among oncologists as well as other medcial professionals. By addressing a gap in identifying mental health problems among health care professionals, this book sheds light on mental health problems and suicide among physicians. Importantly, this book is a call to action of the professional and administrative organizations to work on improving mental health of physicians. Anxiety and depression affect not only the individual doctor but also patient care. Given the increasing attention to these issues along with limited yet applicable data regarding how to address these issues, the text aims to bring the latest data face to face with consensus opinion and can be used to ultimately enhance oncologic and psychiatric practices. Written by experts in the field, Depression, Burnout and Suicide in Physicians: Insights from Oncology and Other Medical Professions aims to significantly increase awareness and contribute to understanding the necessity of preventive measures on individual, family, and care givers levels.

"The book is extremely well balanced: in each section there is usually an argument for and against the positions raised. It is a useful and well-thought-out text. It will make people think and discuss the problems raised, which I think is the editor's main purpose." -- Journal of Medical Ethics "... a volume that is to be commended for the clarity of its contributions, and for the depth it gains from its narrow focus. In places, this is a deeply moving, as well as closely argued, book." -- Times Literary Supplement "This work is an excellent historical and philosophical resource on a very difficult subject." -- Choice "This collection of well-written and carefully argued essays should be interesting, illuminating, and thought provoking for students, clinicians, and scholars." -- New England Journal of Medicine "This book is highly recommended..." -- Pharmacy Book Review "This is a well-balanced collection and the essays are of uniformly good quality.... very readable.... should be useful to anyone interested in this topic." -- Doody's Health Sciences Book Review Home Page "Physician-Assisted Suicide continues in the fine tradition of the Medical Ethics series published by Indiana University Press. Chapters are authored by outstanding scholars from both sides of the debate, providing a balanced, in-depth exploration of physician-assisted suicide along clinical, ethical, historical, and public policy dimensions. It is important reading for those who want to better understand the complex, multilayered issues that underlie this emotionally-laden topic." -- Timothy Quill, M.D. "Robert Weir has produced the finest collection of essays on physician assisted dying yet assembled in one volume. Physician assisted dying involves ethical and legal issues of enormous complexity. The deep strength of this anthology is its multi-disciplinary approach, which insightfully brings to bear interpretations from history, moral philosophy, religion, clinical practice, and law. This is a subject, much like abortion, that has divided America. This volume provides balanced scholarship that will help inform opinions from the hospital and hospice bedside to the halls of federal and state legislatures and courtrooms." -- Lawrence O. Gostin, Co-Director, Georgetown/Johns Hopkins Program on Law and Public Health "This book is a timely and valuable contribution to the debate. Highly recommended for academic collections." -- Library Journal These essays shed light and perspective on today's hotly contested issue of physician-assisted suicide. The authors were selected not only because of their experience and scholarship, but also because they provide readers with differing points of view on this complex subject -- and a potential moral quandary for us all.

Physician-Assisted Death is the eleventh volume of Biomedical Ethics Reviews. We, the editors, are pleased with the response to the series over the years and, as a result, are happy to continue into a second decade with the same general purpose and zeal. As in the past, contributors to projected volumes have been asked to summarize the nature of the literature, the prevailing attitudes and arguments, and then to advance the discussion in some way by staking out and arguing forcefully for some basic position on the topic targeted for discussion. For the present volume on Physician-Assisted Death, we felt it wise to enlist the services of a guest editor, Dr. Gregg A. Kasting, a practicing physician with extensive clinical knowledge of the various problems and issues encountered in discussing physician assisted death. Dr. Kasting is also our student and just completing a graduate degree in philosophy with a specialty in biomedical ethics here at Georgia State University. Apart from a keen interest in the topic, Dr. Kasting has published good work in the area and has, in our opinion, done an excellent job in taking on the lion's share of editing this well-balanced and probing set of essays. We hope you will agree that this volume significantly advances the level of discussion on physician-assisted euthanasia. Incidentally, we wish to note that the essays in this volume were all finished and committed to press by January 1993.