The number of deaths due to paracetamol poisoning fell by 22% in the year after the legislation. There was no significant increase in suicide deaths by other means. We see similar results with interventions like reducing the availability of highly toxic pesticides or installing barriers on bridges.
Most suicidality is impulsive and transient, so simple interventions to reduce access to means of suicide can have very significant results. There's very little you can do to prevent a sufficiently determined person from dying by suicide, but most people who die by suicide aren't strongly motivated to die - they're just briefly overwhelmed by life.
Most suicidality is impulsive and transient, so simple interventions to reduce access to means of suicide can have very significant results. There's very little you can do to prevent a sufficiently determined person from dying by suicide, but most people who die by suicide aren't strongly motivated to die - they're just briefly overwhelmed by life.
https://www.bmj.com/content/329/7474/1076
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/means-matter/saves...