One of the most effective public health measures to prevent suicide is the restriction of access to means used in suicidal acts. This approach can be especially effective if a method is common and readily accessible. Suicide methods vary widely, and there have been several examples where means restriction has been applied, often with considerable success. Factors contributing to availability of suicide methods can include access to physical means as well as cognitive awareness of methods. In this paper, which is the second in a Series on a public health approach to suicide prevention, we focus primarily on examples of restricting access to physical means of suicide, such as pesticides, firearms, and medication. We also discuss restricting the cognitive availability of means through attention to media and other representations of suicide methods. There are challenges associated with restricting access to means, including resistance to measures required to change the availability of some methods (which might, in part, be commercially determined) and method substitution, whereby one suicide method is replaced by another. Nevertheless, means restriction must be an integral part of all national and local suicide prevention strategies.

中文翻译：

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限制使用用于自杀的手段


防止自杀的最有效公共卫生措施之一是限制使用自杀行为中使用的手段。如果一种方法很常见且易于访问，则此方法可能特别有效。自杀方法差异很大，并且有几个例子应用了手段限制，通常取得了相当大的成功。导致自杀方法可用的因素可能包括获得物理手段以及对方法的认知意识。在本文中，这是关于预防自杀的公共卫生方法系列的第二篇，我们主要关注限制获得物理自杀手段（例如杀虫剂、枪支和药物）的例子。我们还讨论了通过关注媒体和其他自杀方法的表现来限制手段的认知可用性。限制获取手段存在挑战，包括抵制改变某些方法的可用性（可能部分由商业决定）和方法替代，即一种自杀方法被另一种方法取代。尽管如此，手段限制必须成为所有国家和地方自杀预防策略的组成部分。