Table 2—

Standardized mortality ratios for suicide among 128 of the 189 decedents in Table 1 who were classified as employed at the time of death.

	No. of deaths
Category	Observed	Expected	SMR (95% CI)
Veterinarians
Male
All deaths by suicide	34	21.5	1.6 (1.1–2.1)
Pentobarbital poisoning excluded	24	21.5	1.1 (0.7–1.6)
Female
All deaths by suicide	16	6.6	2.4 (1.2–3.6)
Pentobarbital poisoning excluded	10	6.6	1.5 (0.6–2.5)
Veterinary technicians or technologists
Male
All deaths by suicide*	15	3.0	5.0 (2.5–7.6)
Female
All deaths by suicide	37	15.9	2.3 (1.6–3.1)
Pentobarbital poisoning excluded	32	15.9	2.0 (1.3–2.7)
Veterinary assistants or laboratory animal caretakers
Male
All deaths by suicide*	9	10.8	0.8 (0.3–1.4)
Female
All deaths by suicide	17	12.1	1.4 (0.7–2.1)
Pentobarbital poisoning excluded	—	—	—

Data are reported for 25- to 69-year-old veterinarians, 20- to 69-year-old veterinary technicians or technologists, and 20- to 69-year-old veterinary assistants or laboratory animal caretakers; age limits were selected on the basis of on an assumed retirement age of 70 for all decedents and additional time for postgraduate study prior to employment for veterinarians. This analysis excluded deaths of undetermined intent; the SMR for a given group indicates a significant difference in the rate of death by suicide, compared with that for the general population, when the 95% CI does not include 1.

^*No deaths involving pentobarbital poisoning were recorded for these groups.

See Table 1 for remainder of key.