Restringir el acceso a pesticidas y armas de fuego podría prevenir más de 120.000 muertes por suicidio en las Américas en una década – OPS/OMS

Washington, July 17, 2024 (PAHO).- A study published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas reveals that implementing policies to restrict access to highly hazardous pesticides and firearms could prevent more than 120,000 suicide deaths in the Americas over a ten-year period.

The research, conducted in collaboration with experts from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) of Canada, suggests that if restrictions on access to firearms or pesticides are applied in countries where they account for 40% or more of suicides, the mortality rate could be reduced by more than 20% among men and 11% among women by 2030.

Nearly 100,000 lives are lost to suicide annually in the Americas, and unlike other WHO regions, the suicide mortality rate has increased in recent years. Means restriction is an effective, evidence-based intervention in suicide prevention, and a key strategy recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) under its “LIVING LIFE” approach to reduce suicide mortality.

«Suicide is preventable and every life lost is devastating,» said Anselm Hennis, Director of PAHO’s Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health and co-author of the study. «This study shows that effective policies that limit access to two of the most common methods of suicide can have an impact on reducing mortality in the region,» he added.

Using modeled data from 2020 to 2030, the study estimates a major impact in several countries. For example, in El Salvador, Guyana, Nicaragua, and Suriname, where ingestion of highly hazardous pesticides accounted for 40% or more of suicides in each country in 2019, restriction measures could substantially reduce suicide rates by 2030. Similarly, in the United States, where firearms accounted for more than 40% of suicide deaths in the same year, implementation of targeted restrictions is projected to lead to a marked decline in suicide rates over the next decade.

The study concludes that the effective implementation of measures to restrict access to pesticides and firearms could prevent the loss of more than 123,000 lives to suicide throughout the Americas.

The most notable reductions would be observed in the non-Latin Caribbean subregion, where the suicide mortality rate could be reduced by up to 31% among men and 34% among women if a specific restriction on highly hazardous pesticides is applied in three key countries: Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, in 2020.

«Implementing restriction measures is most effective when the methods are prevalent and account for a significant proportion of suicide deaths,» said Dr. Renato Oliveira e Souza, head of PAHO’s Mental Health and Substance Use Unit and co-author of the study. «However, it is also crucial to consider the sociocultural context when implementing means restriction policies.»

The researchers behind the study call for multi-sector collaboration to implement these evidence-based interventions in order to meet the WHO target of reducing the suicide mortality rate by one-third by 2030.