Doctor tell me; Academic competition and suicide

Doctor tell me what role does high academic competition play in campus suicide attempts. Because answering questions about your health is an important part of your doctor's services. The Minnesota State Medical Association presents doctor tell me here to ask the doctor your questions. Is Janice Hughes dead. Today our health questions will be answered by Dr. George Williams a psychiatrist from St. Paul. Dr. Williams Why would so many of what would seem to be the top students with their future assured want to kill themselves. Well the answer to this question is still very unclear Janice and we may really never know. But many of these students are away from home for the first time. They're making necessary adjustments which they have never had to make before. They're facing a separation from family friends and the usual environment in which they have lived for many years and the problems and decisions which they have to make now on their own may

well be so overwhelming that depression and suicide may result. No. Basic however to all of this is the basic personality structure which the individual brings with him to the college whereas Not everyone commits suicide. Would you say that all students if if not all persons go through some point in their lives when they are overly concerned with their own suicide. I think the answer to that question is yes for I think that most people think about suicide at one time or another in their lives and this is particularly true I think the teen age group when their language is replete with this term suicide I could have killed myself and similar terms which have may have absolutely no meaning. But let us know that the individual is thinking along these lines.

Most campus suicides among the marginal are failing students. The answer to that question is a bit difficult but a recent study which came from a well-known university indicated that most suicidal attempts were actually among students who were on the higher level of academic production. Our students who pursue certain courses of study likely to be more suicidal prone Yes those students that are engaged for example in the humanities engaged in the feeling subjects if you will sociology medicine certainly are said to be higher risks. There are certain times of the college year when suicides are more likely to happen. Normally we would think that this might be around the time of examinations Actually it's not true September October or the two

months that we see suicide and suicide attempts occurring most frequently. Why is it that we hear so little about the campus suicides when it is ranked so high in cause of death. Well I suspect there are two reasons for that I think that one sometimes the information simply is not carried or secondly that the. Person can kill themselves and this is a diagnosis that may be difficult to make without the use of medical examiners and their facilities in order to prove it. There's been some indication in some of the private colleges certainly that suicidal attempts have been and suicides themselves have been completely whitewashed for this indeed seemingly would give the college a black eye. Thank you very much talk to you.

The Minnesota State Medical Association has presented Dr. tell me recorded in the studios of KUNM at the University of Minnesota. Janice Hughes stead has asked the doctor your questions if you have any additional questions. Write to Dr. tell me. Minnesota State Medical Association Three seventy five Jackson St.. St. Paul Minnesota. 5 5 1 0 0 1. This program was distributed by the national educational radio network.