Suicide by health professionals: a retrospective mortality study in Australia, 2001–2012

I thank Adler and Adler for their comment on my editorial on suicide by health care professionals.1 Their proposal of “redressing sexual inequalities in medicine and eliminating sexual harassment” appears to be encompassed in my statement about “ensuring good workplace relationships and equal opportunity [and] eliminating bullying”,1 which they quote in their letter.

Regrettably, sexual harassment is common and not unique to medicine, with an estimated prevalence in the workplace of 35–50%.2 Although Adler and Adler refer to the work of Frank and colleagues3 in demonstrating an association between sexual harassment and suicide attempts in female doctors, they do not mention the caveats that the study authors noted. These include that it was “a relationship we cannot determine”; that earlier studies were “based on small numbers and the subject of considerable controversy”; and that “these problems are not unique to women physicians”.

Bearing in mind the low base rate discussed in my article, ensuring that equal opportunity, good workplace relations and anti-bullying approaches are standard for health practitioners, and that health practitioners can access general and mental health care, are more realistic and achievable goals that are more likely to return dividends.