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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 "We are proposing a population-based approach to reducing suicide. This approach recognizes that the physical environment [e.g., the availability of household guns in the U.S., the toxicity of pesticides in Sri Lanka, a frequent method of suicide there] can have a profound effect on the likelihood of completed suicide -- and that the physical environment can be modified to save lives. This approach is based on understanding that the number of Americans who die each year can be reduced not only by reducing the rate at which Americans attempt suicide [the traditional target of screening and treatment prevention efforts] but also, and perhaps most dramatically, by making it less likely that suicide attempts prove fatal. One of the best ways to reduce the probability that an impulsive suicidal act proves fatal is to remove firearms from the home."
Miller and study co-author David Hemenway noted that a number of U.S. studies have concluded that a gun in the home is associated with a two-to-10-times increased risk of suicide compared to homes without guns. Research has also found that the higher risk of completed suicide in homes with firearms applies not only to the gun owner but also to the gun owner's spouse and children.
"Too many clinicians seem to believe that anyone who uses a gun to attempt suicide must be serious enough that if a gun were not available, they would find an equally lethal way to kill themselves," said Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. "This belief is invalid. Physicians need to embrace all effective measures that can prevent completed suicide, including means restriction."
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Mental Health America has more about suicide.
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-- Robert Preidt
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