title: [About suicide methods of physicians, medical personnel and related professions].
abstract: A collective of 131 suicides of physicians (n = 40), female and male nurses (n = 38), pharmacists/chemist/biologists (n = 17) and medical/chemical assistant personnel (n = 36) was evaluated with regard to the method of suicide. Preferred methods were ingestion of medicaments orally (29%) and by infusion/injection (18%), hanging (13%), cyanide poisoning (10%), jumping from great height (10%) and drowning (8%). The results were compared with a control group (n = 739: hanging 32%, oral ingestion of medicaments 16%, jumping from great height 13%, shooting 9%, drowning 8%, railway suicides 7%). Methods such as infusion/injection (anesthesiologists) and cyanide poisoning (chemists/chemical staff) being typical of occupation were over-represented within the first group, however, at the same time concentrated on specialized subgroups. Intoxications by infusion/injection and medicaments predominated even more clearly in physicians (58%) than in the total collective.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The tendency to a method of suicide being typical of the profession rises among physicians and related occupations with the degree of specialization (increasing knowledge, easier access to appropriate drugs and methods). Medical/chemical education and occupation alone is not yet associated with such a predisposition.
authors.affiliation: Instituten für Rechtsmedizin, Universitäten Bonn.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Grellner
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kukuk
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Glenewinkel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000453:epidemiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004332:Drowning / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009726:Nurses / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009790:Occupations / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011041:Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot / Q000453:epidemiology
vernacular_title: Zur Suizidmethode von Arzten, medizinischem Personal und verwandten Berufsgruppen.