Medical student and physician stress: High rates of suicide

From the Well blog on the New York Times: Several years ago, I learned that a physician in a town not too far from where I was practicing had committed suicide. Neither I nor my hospital colleagues knew him, but according to the story we heard, he was the father of young children, was respected by doctors and patients alike and had struggled privately with mental illness since medical school.
But it was not the details of his life that haunted us; it was the details of his death. He had locked himself in a room in the hospital, placed a large needle in his vein and injected himself with a drug that so effectively paralyzed his muscles he was unable to breathe.
Or call for help.
Read the rest here.
I can easily see how the suicide rates are so high. (And depressingly high, so to speak, for female docs.) If you just factor in the cut-throat competition, and the need to be top of the class (when there's only one spot available), sure I get it. It's very sad. There has to be a paradigm shift. And not just among doctors, or those in training.