THE DOCTOR'S LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 132, 15 December 1928, Page 17

THE DOCTOR'S LIFE

ALCOHOLISM AND SDICIDE (From "The Post's"; Representative.) LONDON, 19th October. According to Dr. B. Graham • Little, M.P., who spoko at a meeting of the Royal Institute of Public Health, the doctor's consulting room, tar from being a gold mine, is often the shortest route !o the cemetery. ."Alcoholism and suicide* an; notably frequent, in . doctors, compared with other classes," lie said. "As compared with lawyers and clergymen., the im-d ical group has a itiueli higher mortal.t y Two causes of death which vrv. unhap pily notably frequent in doctors us cojii pared with other groups are alcoholism and suicide, and reasons for this selective frequency may be perhaps inquir ed into. The doctor, especially th^ doctor practising in crowded, industrial areas, is a much over-worked man. ■ He is often obliged to force himself to the utmost to get the last ounce of his strength brought into action in an emergency, and the peg of whisky is the quickest and most effective means of getting that, last ounce of- energy out of himself. . "The doctor also, in poorer and slum districts, is usually an isolated and lonely, as well as a tired man. He is largely cut off from fellowship with his equals. He cannot mix with his patients as men in better environments may do, and moderate but continuous drinking, rather than occasional excesses, constitute the worst type of alcoholism, that of the solitary or secret drinker. The drabness of life under these circumstances is again a compelling factor in producing alcoholic habits. PREVALENCE OF SUICIDE. "The prevalence of suicide may perhaps be explained by a number of considerations. The doctor who thinks he is attacked by a fatal disease, may yield to a temptation to end his troubles, which is not present to other persons ( similarly affected, and the transitory or even momentary depression of a tired man may thus precipitate a fatal issue which so simple a measure as a good uight's rest would avoid. The means of terminating his existence are always at liis hand in {he drugs which he handles.' "It is also probably true to say chat the medical calling has never boon so anxious a one as it is to-day. The pro fessiou is greatly over-crowded. Par from being the goldmine which popular imagination so fantastically imagines it to be, the consulting-room of a doctor is much more often the shortest route to the cemetery." Dr. Alfred Cox, medical secretary to the British .Medical Association, does not agree. ''I should i.ot call it a drab life," lie said. "1 should call it tlio most in teresting life there is. Thrre is no drabness about it except to v man who finds himself in the wrong profession. "To my mind it is an exaggerated way of putting the position when one speaks of the doctor's consulting room being the shortest route to the cenie tery. The strain on a doctor in an ac tive practice is very great, both men tally and physically, but. it must be ro inembereel that a man cannot pursue a medical career unless ho had pretty good health to begin with. "Roughly speaking, it is true thai the. temptation to alcohol is great in the case of the doctor on account, of missed meals, irregular working hours, and so forth. And there is, of course, easy access to drugs, but I am unable to say whether suicide is notably frequent in doctors. My own view is that, physically, doctors are as good as any other class. The life is a trying one, but 1 should not say that it is an especially easy ro;id to tho grave."