[Locke]

> One of the most amazing things about suicide is that over the past 80 years or so in the United States, suicide rates have been extremely flat. The fact that suicide rates have not changed in response to changes in medical technology and other ways of life is astounding.

This may be true in the US, but in Greenland it seems like suicide rates have changed in response to changing ways of life:

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/04/21/47484792...

[Bartweiss]

An obvious question is whether suicide rates are unchanged, or simply flat because we have opposed changes obscuring the data.

There's a bit of variance in the US numbers, and I wonder how means reduction, a decline in chronic pain/terminal illness, and various way of life changes compare. I'd be surprised if none of those things were relevant, but less surprised if they didn't add up to a clear trend.