Study Reveals Pharmacist Suicide Rate Is Higher Than Other Professions, Firearms Become The Favorite Method

JAKARTA - Not exemplary and prohibited by religion, suicide is still the choice of a handful of people to end their lives with various backgrounds, feeling guilty, avoiding problems and many because of bullying.

Suicide is the 17th leading cause of death worldwide, claiming the lives of 700,000 people every year worldwide. From 1999 to 2017, the suicide rate among residents of the United States increased from 10.5 to 14 per 100,000 people.

The fact that medical workers have a higher suicide risk isn't new to the researchers, but they were surprised to find pharmacists at the top of the profession with the highest suicide rates.

Launching Sputnik News on May 16, the pharmacist profession occupies the top position based on an analysis of data collected by researchers over 15 years in Uncle Sam's country.

Published in the 'Journal of the American Pharmacists Association', researchers from the University of California used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), covering the period 2003 to 2018 in their study.

Statistics from 39 US states contain information that describes suicide, including characteristics such as the occupation of the person who died.

Analysis of the study period revealed that the NDRS system recorded 316 pharmacist suicides and 213,146 suicide deaths, among members of other population groups.

Of the 316 pharmacists, 75 percent were men and 85 percent were white. The median age was 53.5 years, while the median age of others who committed suicide was 49.

The suicide rate among pharmacists is higher than among the rest of the population. According to scientists, out of 100,000 pharmacists, 20 commit suicide, and of 100,000 representatives of other population groups, only 12 commit suicide per 100,000 people.

Firearms were the most common method of suicide, accounting for 134 of 316 deaths, followed by poisoning, which was used in 79 deaths.

The former were similar among pharmacists and non-pharmacies, but "poisoning was more common among pharmacists" (29.4 percent versus 16.7 percent, respectively). Meanwhile "hanging oneself, strangulation, or suffocation was more common among non-pharmacist" (13.0 percent versus 24.5 percent, respectively), according to the study.