Suicidal ideation in medical students: a worldwide problem

Ghazia Ahmed,1 Zahra Arzoky2 1Faculty of Medicine, St George’s Hospital Medical School, London, UK; 2Medical Department at Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UKWe commend Coentre and Góis1 for their valuable review of suicidal ideation in medical students across different countries. It raised pertinent questions surrounding the concerning rate of suicidal ideation and the need for early effective prevention and treatment strategies. As senior medical students, we would like to offer additional insight. Suicide is the second leading cause of mortality in young people and rates have been increasing worldwide;2 medical students being particularly at high risk.Authors’ replyRicardo Coentre,1,2 Carlos Góis1,21Department of Psychiatry, Hospital de Santa Maria, Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte, EPE, Lisboa, Portugal; 2Psychiatric University Clinic, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Lisboa, PortugalThis letter is in response to the letter made by Ahmed and Arzoky. We think that these senior medical students made helpful comments to our article. We agree that suicide is a major health problem in young people and medical doctors have high risk. Some points need to be addressed in future research, namely to clarify some factors associated with suicidality in medical students. Despite this we think that we have to start a new era where preventive and treatment interventions are needed in a generalized way on medical schools in the world. A good example of this is the referred program implemented in Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA, where simple changes in medical curriculum and interventions led to a better medical students’ mental health.View the original paper by Coentre and Gói