Commentary: Thomas & Gunnell’s paper

This paper1 is an interesting and unusual data set that raises a number of questions, only some of which are answerable. Life expectancy has steadily increased from 1900 to 2000, while infant mortality has also steadily improved. Suicide rates have not kept pace with this general improvement in health by showing similar linear decreases. If we disregard the major re-ductions in suicide rates in both world wars, more pronounced for males than females, we can say that male rates rose steadily from 1863 to 1905, but ha