Suicides among Medical Students and Doctors in Bangladesh

Introduction: Suicide is one of the neglected global public health problem. Medical students and doctors have 2.5 times higher risk than general population for committing suicide due to psychological stress with other factors. There is no robust suicide reporting system in Bangladesh, hence we conducted this study by obtaining news of suicides among medical students and doctors in Bangladesh from online news portals, other publicly available sites, social media and publications in different streams of medical journals.

Objectives: To explore the socio-demographic characteristics, modes and main reason of suicidal deaths among medical students and doctors in Bangladesh. for about last five years (January 2020- October 2024).

Method: This is an exploratory study regarding suicidal death based on retrospective news content analysis from January 2020 to October 2024. News of suicidal death among the medical students and doctors, available on leading online news portals, other publicly available sites, social media and publications in different streams of medical journals were used for data collection.

Result: This study found total 37 cases of suicide of medical students and doctors in Bangladesh from available online news. Among the total cases majority (45.9%) of the victims of medical students and doctors of Bangladesh were from 20-25 years age group. Due to more challenges, female medical students and doctors committed more suicide (51.35%) than men. This study found that majority (54.05%) of the suicidal cases were from doctors and among the medical students most of the suicide committed in 2nd year of MBBS course. Regarding methods of suicide, hanging (62.16%) was the most common modes of suicide used by the medical students and doctors in Bangladesh. Suicide is committed due to multiple factors and the most common causes were family problem (29.7%) with marital conflict and academic pressure with examination stress (13.5%).

Conclusion: Suicide is a preventable public health issue that can be explored by further research in medical field. Healthful environment in workplace and adequate mental health counselling can minimize the suicide of medical students and doctors in Bangladesh.