Patients' suicides: frequency and impact on psychiatrists
- 1 February 1988
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Psychiatric Association Publishing in American Journal of Psychiatry
- Vol. 145 (2), 224-228
- https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.145.2.224
Abstract
Results of a national survey of randomly selected psychiatrists revealed that 51% (N = 131) of the 259 respondents had had a patient who committed suicide. This event had an impact on both their personal and their professional lives. Sixty-five psychiatrists reported stress levels in the weeks following the suicide that were comparable to levels reported in studies of people seeking treatment after the death of a parent. Younger, less-experienced clinicians were more affected by a patient's suicide than older clinicians with more experience. Implications of these results for the training and practice of psychiatrists are discussed.This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Psychotherapists as Suicide SurvivorsAmerican Journal of Psychotherapy, 1984