Last year more than 62,000 medical professionals and their families signed a petition asking medical associations to track physician suicides and address factors common in healthcare environments that cause psychological distress.

There's an epidemic of depression and suicide among physicians. It's no joke.

The grim tally of suicides among physicians and medical students - 300 to 400 - in the US is probably low (since many suicides aren't listed as such on death certificates). It's about the size of the average medical school class. Male doctors are 1.4 times more likely to kill themselves than men in the general population; female physicians, 2.3 times more likely.

In one study, nearly 1/4 of med students reported significant symptoms of depression, and 7% had suicidal thoughts in the last two weeks.

Pam Wible MD on Why Physicians Kill Themselves TED talk.