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That 84% fall in number of suicides surprised me, so I googled around a bit.

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/12/13/can-blue-co... gives some more reasonable account (part of the change may be that people do not commit suicide _there_) and references the paper in question (http://phys.org/news/2008-12-blue-streetlights-crime-suicide...) which is titled (emphasis added): "Blue streetlights may prevent crime, suicide".

Unfortunately, I cannot find the text.

As to the effect, I now think it may be real in the sense that it prevents suicide on impulse. People who are suicidal all the time will probably find another place or method to do so, but people who just feel miserable and have suicidal impulses may be prevented from jumping.

And of course, that may change once people have grown up in cities that are illuminated sky-blue throughout the night.

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> As to the effect, I now think it may be real in the sense that it prevents suicide on impulse. People who are suicidal all the time will probably find another place or method to do so, but people who just feel miserable and have suicidal impulses may be prevented from jumping.

This wouldn't be a new finding. Several years ago, I read that putting railings on bridges dropped the overall suicide rate for similar reasons.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html?...

As both the article and another commenter note, British suicide rates dropped as the most popular method of suicide (sticking your head in the oven) was made more difficult by the reduction of coal-gas ovens.

Another interesting addendum is the impulsively suicidal generally choose the most effective methods (jumping off a bridge, shooting oneself, etc) while the most determinedly suicidal choose the least effective methods (overdosing, cutting, etc.) It's perversely the opposite of what you might expect.

One question I have, that can be hard to ask without sounding insensitive, is if all suicide attempts are equal in their intent. Overdosing allows for far more options to be saved than a shotgun does; could the choice of one over the other be due to a subconscious or conscious desire to not actually die?

Most suicide is impulsive, so preventing access to means and methods is a useful way to reduce numbers of suicide.

As the population changes younger people find new methods, so it's not enough by itself.

They don't always find new methods. For example when gas stoves became less common in Britain, the suicide rate went down and stayed down.

Interjection: It's not that stoves changed, it's that utilities switched from coal gas (high in carbon monoxide) to natural gas.

Oh, thanks! That makes more sense.

Yes, and similarly when car exhausts became cleaner.

But if you look at other changes (eg limiting the sizes of paracetamol packets sold over the counter) we see a shift from paracetamol to opiates or tri-cyclics or anti-psychotics.

> limiting the sizes of paracetamol packets sold over the counter

I hope people aren't trying to kill themselves with paracetamol!

That's one of the nastiest ways to die. It takes about five days between OD and death, and it's exceedingly painful. Doctors can't do anything to save you, you're stuck explaining to your family that you're dying by your own hand, and you almost always change your mind during that time but it's too late. Did I mention the extreme pain?

As far as ways to die go, paracetamol-induced liver failure is one of the most nightmarish. If people are choosing to kill themselves by ODing on heroin instead of on paracetamol, well, at least their death will be less excruciating.

that could be, that if want to kill yourself using tablets then you have to plan and go out and buy them in advance, whereas if you want to kill yourself using the gas oven then its simple to turn it on and put your head in.

those who formulate a plan and carry it out are more likely to formulate an alternative plan if the one they initially had in mind wasn't going to be possible

those who act on impulse find that if they have to think about it, the impulse has gone

could be

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