A friend of mine just told me that dentists have the highest rate of suicide than any other profession. He logged off before I could get a source for that. Would anyone know if this is true? I work in a dental office, with probably 20 or so dentists, and they all seem pretty well-adjusted to me, and I don’t get what would be so depressing about teeth. Anyway, I always heard it was psychiatrists, which makes more sense to me.
Thoughts? Comments? Flog the newbie?
flog the newbie? perk
that got my attention.
I have heard this same thing. I think it is a line from a movie actually.
I have no facts to back that up. Hell, I can’t remember last week at times.
I am sure the masses here will find you an answer.
Just go over to the Pit and ask them what’s the other word that ends in -g-r-y.
I think this column might help:
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msuicide.html
Prison guards supposedly have a high suicide rate (according to the mailbag question)? That’s one I haven’t heard before. Having worked with several thousand prison guards, I’ve only heard of three who committed suicide (and one may have been murdered, the circumstances were somewhat ambiguous).
“They’re always looking down in the mouth”
I read that in a joke book in, oh…, 1955.
Nemo, I guess one question is what your work with prison guards IS, and do you see a truly random sample?
However, please note that the Mailbag Answer cites about 139 suicides per million amongst guards… That’s a very small percentage. If you’ve worked with 10,000 guards, and their suicide rates were in line with the statistics quoted in the article, that’d be only 1 or 2 expected suicides. So if you’ve worked with fewer than 10,000 guards and have seen two (or three) suicides, that’s probably a pretty high rate.