Veterinarians die by suicide at higher-than-expected rates: CDC-led research found suicide accounted for a larger share of deaths among U.S. veterinarians than in the general population, for both male and female veterinarians, and a second CDC study found significantly elevated suicide mortality among veterinary technicians.
Researchers point to work-stress factors including long hours, poor work-life balance, compassion fatigue and financial stress — while cautioning there is no single cause.
Support and treatment work for most people who have thoughts about suicide; if you need help now, call or text 988.
If you need help now: 988 and Not One More Vet
If you are having thoughts of suicide — or you are worried about someone who is — help is available right now.
Call or text 988 to reach trained counselors in the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline network, the U.S. three-digit number since July 2022, or use live chat at 988lifeline.org.
The line runs 24/7/365, conversations are free and confidential, veterans can press 1 for the Veterans Crisis Line, and Spanish-language support is available by pressing 2 or texting AYUDA to 988.
You do not have to be the person in crisis to reach out — 988 takes contacts from people worried about someone else, too.
Within veterinary medicine, Not One More Vet (NOMV) is a peer community focused on mental wellness in the profession.
Dr. Nicole McArthur founded it on October 1, 2014; it runs a peer forum it describes as around forty thousand veterinary professionals strong, alongside education, resources and peer support, and it lists 988 as the suicide prevention line for the U.S. and Canada.
And one thing the evidence supports saying plainly: coping skills, support and treatment work for most people who have thoughts about suicide.
Reaching out is not a last resort; it is what works.
This page is general information, not medical advice
What the research found
A note on language first.
This page follows the Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide, developed by SAVE with organizations including the CDC, SAMHSA and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
So it says died by suicide rather than committed suicide, avoids method and location details, and does not reduce any death to a single reason.
The foundation is a CDC-led study published in JAVMA in 2019 (Tomasi et al.) that analyzed death records for 11,620 U.S. veterinarians who died from 1979 through 2015 and found 398 deaths by suicide.
Compared with the general U.S. population, the proportionate mortality ratio (PMR) for suicide was 2.1 for male and 3.5 for female veterinarians.
A PMR compares the share of deaths from one cause inside a group with that share in the general population — a population measure, not a prediction about any one person.
Within that study, the ratios varied by role and sex: female veterinarians in nonclinical positions had a suicide PMR of 5.0 and those in clinical positions 3.4; for males the figures were 1.8 (nonclinical) and 2.2 (clinical).
A second CDC-led study published the same year (Witte et al., JAVMA) used National Violent Death Reporting System records from 2003 through 2014 contributed by eighteen states — not the whole country.
It identified 202 deaths by suicide or undetermined intent among veterinary professionals and students — 197 of them professionals, 5 students.
Among decedents employed at death, standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) for suicide were 1.6 for male and 2.4 for female veterinarians, and 5.0 for male and 2.3 for female veterinary technicians or technologists — all significantly above the general U.S. population.
For veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers, SMRs were not significantly elevated.
A 2022 CDC/AVMA follow-up (Tomasi et al., JAVMA) analyzed all causes of death among those same 11,620 veterinarians and again found higher-than-expected proportionate mortality for suicide — 2.1 for males and 3.5 for females — alongside melanoma and transportation injuries.
That paper covers veterinarians only; the technician findings come from the 2019 NVDRS study.
On how living veterinarians are doing, the often-quoted CDC summary of a 2014 survey suggests nearly one in 10 U.S. veterinarians might suffer serious psychological distress, and more than one in six might have experienced suicidal ideation since graduation.
Hold those numbers loosely: CDC itself flagged that the survey was self-selected, that nonresponse bias could over- or underestimate prevalence, and hedged the findings with “might”.
How to read 2.1 and 3.5
Factors researchers point to
Start with what the research does not say: that the job alone explains these deaths.
In the NVDRS study, job or financial problems were identified as contributing in 7% to 22% of veterinary-professional suicides across groups with reportable data — similar to what has been reported among the general population — which cautions against assuming work stress alone explains them.
Safe-messaging guidance is equally direct: do not oversimplify or speculate on the reason for a suicide.
What researchers do describe is a set of pressures that recur in veterinary work.
NIOSH notes that veterinary professionals have an increased rate of suicide and lists work-stress factors including long working hours, poor work-life balance, compassion fatigue and financial stress.
Those pressures are not evenly distributed, either — what a veterinarian does day to day concentrates clinical decisions, client conflict and long hours in a single role.
Veterinarians’ own survey answers line up with that list.
In AVMA’s 2024 research, the most-cited primary reasons for considering leaving the profession were better mental health (33.7%) and lifestyle and work hours (16.6%), followed by difficult or ungrateful clients (11.6%), work-life balance (11.0%) and toxic work culture (8.3%); high student debt was the primary reason for just 0.6%.
These are reasons for wanting out of the profession, not causes of suicide — but they map closely onto the pressures NIOSH names.
The most recent broad wellbeing data comes from Merck Animal Health’s Veterinarian Wellbeing Study IV, fielded in September and October 2023 by Brakke Consulting with the AVMA among 4,636 U.S. veterinarians, with a companion team study of 2,271 technicians, assistants, managers and CSRs.
It found veterinarians’ overall burnout similar to the general population’s, but exhaustion notably higher: 61% versus 32%.
AVMA’s own ProQOL tracking puts the average burnout score at 26.4 out of 50 in both 2023 and 2024.
Distress skews young: 17.3% of veterinarians aged 18 to 34 had serious psychological distress, against 6% of those aged 55 to 64.
And wellbeing varies by team role — 33.6% of veterinary assistants and 39.4% of CSRs were flourishing, versus 42.6% of technicians and 52.3% of hospital managers.
What practices and the profession are changing
The profession has moved measurably since 2017.
In Merck Wellbeing Study IV, the share of veterinary employers offering employee assistance programs rose to 38% in 2023 from 21% in 2017, and mental-health insurance coverage rose to 52% from 44%.
Veterinarians are reaching for care more, too: a quarter said they were receiving counseling, up from 13% in 2017.
The AVMA has built infrastructure as well.
Its QPR suicide prevention (gatekeeper) training is free to all members of the veterinary community, online, and takes about an hour.
It also publishes a resource guide, Preventing suicide in a veterinary setting, and two postvention guides for workplaces after a suicide.
Not One More Vet works the community side: education, resources and peer support, plus its CLEAR Blueprint certification program for practices that want mental wellness built into how the hospital runs rather than left to an EAP brochure in the break room.
For the employer side of this — what a practice can actually put in place, from benefits to returning-to-work plans after a crisis — see the guide to mental health support at work.
This page stays on the career side.
Choosing a workplace with real support
If you are weighing offers — or deciding whether to stay where you are — the research above turns into a concrete checklist.
These are reasonable questions for any employer, and the answers tell you more than a perks list:
- Is there an EAP, and does the health plan cover mental-health care? The 2023 Merck study counted 38% of veterinary employers offering an employee assistance program — ask rather than assume.
- How does scheduling absorb after-hours demand — and what actually happens when someone needs time for their mental health?
- Does support reach the whole team, or only the doctors? The team data above shows assistants and CSRs reporting the lowest flourishing rates — ask how the practice supports its technicians, assistants and front desk.
- Is the practice willing to invest in structure — NOMV’s CLEAR Blueprint certification, AVMA’s QPR training — or is wellbeing a line in the handbook?
Culture is the variable none of the ratios capture.
Toxic work culture was one of the primary reasons veterinarians gave for considering leaving in AVMA’s 2024 research — and it is a factor an employer can shape.
How a practice talks about its team’s capacity, its euthanasia caseload and its mistakes tells you something the job posting will not.
Where to find support resources
Each of these is built for veterinary people or for anyone in crisis:
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988 any time, or chat via 988lifeline.org. Free, confidential, 24/7/365. Veterans press 1; for Spanish, press 2 or text AYUDA to 988.
- Not One More Vet (NOMV) — nomv.org. The veterinary profession’s own peer community, founded in 2014, with education, resources and peer support for veterinary professionals.
- VETS4VETS (VIN Foundation) — a confidential support service available at no cost to veterinarians anywhere in the world; NIOSH points veterinarians to it.
- AVMA wellbeing resources — free QPR suicide prevention training for the whole veterinary community, the guide Preventing suicide in a veterinary setting, and workplace postvention guides.
If the research on this page is weighing on your own career decisions, take that seriously — the same evidence that documents the risk also documents a profession moving, and support and treatment working for most people who have thoughts about suicide.