Lawyers facing high stress, overwork and loneliness are more likely to contemplate suicide, a new study has found, adding to a growing body of research on mental health challenges facing the legal profession.
The study, published Monday in the journal Healthcare, also concluded that attorneys are twice as likely as other working U.S. adults to have suicidal thoughts, echoing earlier findings.
Researchers surveyed nearly 2,000 lawyers in California and the District of Columbia on their mental health, substance abuse, work loads and stress levels for the report, “Stressed, Lonely, and Overcommitted: Predictors of Lawyer Suicide Risk.”
Almost 9% of the respondents said they thought they would be better off dead or thought of hurting themselves at least several times.
Patrick Krill, an attorney who advises legal employers on wellness issues and a co-author of the study, said this is the first study to explore what’s driving higher rates of suicidal thinking among lawyers and how to identify those most at risk.
The study found that the odds of having suicidal thoughts were 2.2 times higher among attorneys with “high work overcommitment,” and 2.8 times more likely among lawyers who reported being lonely. Lawyers who have been diagnosed with at least one mental illness were 1.8 times more likely to report suicidal thoughts, the study found.
Male lawyers were twice as likely to report suicidal thoughts than women lawyers — an unexpected finding given that women in general experience higher rates of suicidal thoughts but lower rates of death by suicide, according to the study. Lawyers between the ages of 30 and 40 also reported higher rates of suicidal thoughts than older attorneys.
Among the lawyers who reported suicidal thoughts, 66% said that their time in the legal profession had been detrimental to their mental health. And 46% of them said they were considering leaving the profession due to stress or burnout.
The new findings suggest that the legal profession should reduce the stressors attorneys face while also enhancing their ability to tolerate stress, according to the study.
But legal employers have focused their wellbeing efforts on stress management tools and self-care resources for individuals instead of pursuing structural changes such as easing unrealistic time pressures and reducing workloads, the authors wrote.
“Overall, these findings underscore the need for interventions to address work-related stress and loneliness in the legal profession,” the report said.
(Reuters)
