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Background: Patients who commit suicide have often seen their GP shortly before the suicide. It could therefore be assumed that GPs had a strong memory of these suicides and that the suicide had affected them emotionally. This study explored the emotional effect of patients’ suicides on GPs, and whether this effect was linked to the GPs’ propensity to explore suicide risk. Methods: Semistructured interviews were carried out with 14 GPs sampled purposively aiming at maximum variation. The analysis was carried out by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results: Patients’ suicides had a substantial emotional effect on all GPs. Some developed a feeling of guilt and of having failed. If patients had contacted the GP about physical symptoms and the suicide ideation had not been diagnosed, this led to considerable self-scrutiny. GPs differed in their propensity to explore suicide ideation, but all, irrespective of other differences, were emotionally shaken and struck by guilt, feeling of failure, and self-scrutiny if a patient committed suicide. Conclusion: A patient’s suicide greatly affects all GPs. The feeling of insufficiency was linked to not having realized during the visit that the patient may have had suicidal thoughts. The suicides which affected the GPs the most were in patients who had presented vague and diffuse, not easily diagnosable symptoms and who had not given any indications of the suicidal thoughts. Practice implications: GPs’ need for support in emotionally stressful situations should be investigated, and training should be directed towards discovering suicide ideation masked by vague physical symptoms.

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