Suicide Risk for Veterinarians and Veterinary Technicians

A new study, “Suicides and deaths of undetermined intent among veterinary professionals from 2003 through 2014” sheds new light on the issue of suicide among veterinary professions. It is known that veterinarians in the United States and abroad have a higher suicide risk compared with the general population.[1-8] This new study confirms the increased rated of suicide with stronger statistical methods and introduces new data. Prior to this study, there have only been three studies of suicides among US veterinarians,[2,5,8] and two of these were conducted before 1996. Given veterinary medical education enrollment has transitioned since 1970 from being nearly 90% male