Thread by @netshrink

THREAD on Medical Students #suicides
There are 78333 medical seats across India. Considering a 6 yr course & accounting for recent seat increases, there are ~450,000 students in medical schools at any given time. Dandona et al using GBD data estimated suicide rate...1/n

for Indian 20-24 & 25-29 yr olds btwn 27-33 per 100k. For ease of calculation let's take a middle rate of 30/100k. Most medical students in this age group. Assuming med students suicide rate is same as general population, India has ~ 135 medical students dying by suicide/yr..2/n

Remember India has 78,333 medical seats in 549 med schools which is an average of 142 seats/med school. So each year, we lose approximately 1 medical school's yearly intake to #Suicides
The human cost & suffering is unmeasurable. The financial cost we can estimate..3/n

Medical education costs anywhere between 15 lacs to 100 lacs. Let's take a conservative cost ₹25lacs. That means we are losing ₹33.75 cr each yr to medical students suicides. This is only the direct education costs. Indirect costs to society due to lost potential..4/n

are many times higher. I hve taken liberties in making some conservative assumptions. But it highlights the scale of the problem. Med schools, med administrators & the medical profession really should invest in #SuicidePrevention

It will be money & effort well spent. ....END

I estimated medical student suicides @ gen population. American Medical Assoc says it's 3x gen. pop. If true for India, that means ~405 medical student suicides/yr = yearly intake of 3 med schools
It's a real emergency! #SuicidePrevention
Via @SMahashur