Trust me on this one...

Life for a senior executive can be pretty lonely. Often there is built in tension and friction with others at your level. After several rounds of litigation and depositions you become overly cautious on your conversations, comments and email.  Good executives are accountable and often this shows up as carrying the burden of the entire business. The weight and loneliness of this can lead to sadness and depression. A heroic executive turns into the fireman that is on call 24x7, with never a rest. Of course the compensation is best for these jobs, but money is no ally for loneliness. Carrying the burden for terminations, mergers and acquisitions can all add up to quite despair.

This seems to be especially true for male executives as they often don't have the same social network as female leaders.