The authors examined AMA records of the deaths of 751 women physicians
during 1967-1972. Forty-nine (6.56%) committed suicide. The suicide rate
for women physicians (40.7 per 100,000 per year) was higher than for men
physicians and about four times that for white American women of the same
age. From the known morbid risk for suicide among women with primary
affective disorder, the authors calculated that about 65% of American women
physicians have primary affective disorder.Abstract Teaser