The study, recently published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, suggests that enforcing policies to limit access to these dangerous substances could significantly lower suicide rates. Conducted in partnership with PAHO and Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), the research indicates that countries where firearms and pesticides contribute to 40 percent or more of suicides could see reductions in mortality rates—over 20 percent among males and 11 percent among females—by 2030 if these restrictions are implemented.
PAHO reports that nearly 100,000 suicides occur annually across the Americas. Unlike other regions monitored by the World Health Organization (WHO), the suicide rate here has been rising in recent years.
Restricting access to these means is a proven, evidence-based strategy for preventing suicides and is a crucial component of the WHO’s ‘LIVE LIFE’ initiative to cut suicide rates.
PAHO
Anselm Hennis, PAHO’s Director of the Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health and a co-author of the study, emphasized the preventability of suicide, noting, “The study demonstrates that policies limiting access to these common methods of suicide can significantly impact mortality rates in the region.”
The study, which analyzed data from 2020 to 2030, predicts notable effects in various countries. For example, proactive restrictions in El Salvador, Guyana, Nicaragua, and Suriname—where hazardous pesticides were responsible for over 40 percent of suicides in 2019—could dramatically decrease suicide rates by 2030. Similarly, in the United States, where firearms were involved in more than 40 percent of suicide deaths in the same year, targeted restrictions could lead to a substantial decrease in rates over the next decade.
The study forecasts that effective policies could prevent over 123,000 suicide deaths throughout the Americas. The most significant reductions are expected in the non-Latin Caribbean, with potential decreases of up to 31 percent among males and 34 percent among females if restrictions on hazardous pesticides are implemented in Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
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Dr. Renato Oliveira e Souza, PAHO’s Chief of the Mental Health and Substance Use Unit and a co-author of the study, noted, “The most effective measures are those that address prevalent methods accounting for a large proportion of suicides. However, adapting these policies to fit the sociocultural context is also essential.”
The researchers are advocating for “multisectoral collaboration” to implement these evidence-based interventions and achieve the WHO’s goal of reducing the suicide mortality rate by one-third by 2030.
