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rate of all men and almost four times the national rate of men and
women combined. This could be because men in those industries
are often working far from population centers and might not have
suicide counseling readily available. They also might have the war-
rior mentality that Haring describes among members of the military,
namely that “real” men are not supposed to complain about the
difficulty of their jobs or seek help for emotional problems.
For women, the suicide rate is highest in those industries with
different kinds of pressures, those of meeting aggressive goals
and deadlines: the media and the arts, design, entertainment,
and sports. The suicide rate among females in the media is 15.6
per 100,000, or about 2.5 times higher than the rate for the gen-
eral female population. Suicide in the category of arts, design,
entertainment, and sports is 11.7 per 100,000, or about twice the
rate for women generally. These industries also saw the greatest
increase in the suicide rate for men from 2012 to 2015—a 47 per-
cent increase. The industry with the greatest increase for women
in the same time period was food preparation and serving, with a
54 percent increase.
Identifying which populations are at greatest risk is a stan-
dard approach of public health professionals. “Knowing who is
at greater risk for suicide can help save lives through focused
prevention efforts,”
10
says Debra Houry, director of the CDC’s Na-
tional Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Dangers in the Medical Field
Some of the occupations with high suicide rates are surprising.
For example, a December 2018 study by the CDC found that
female veterinarians were 3.5 times as likely to die from suicide
as the general population, while male veterinarians were only 2.1
times as likely. The higher suicide rate for female veterinarians is
particularly concerning because more than 60 percent of US vet-
erinarians are women.
Veterinarians who treat small animals, including dogs and
cats, were at greater risk of suicide than those treating larger ani-
