New Zealand suicide rate for 80+ years from 1920 - NO link to SSRI's - explain that FIDDAMAN

Overall, the total population three-year moving average suicide rate peaked in 1927–1929 (18.5 deaths per 100,000 population). After that point, the suicide rate dropped and then stabilised, with slight fluctuations, until 1971–1973 (10.2 deaths per 100,000 population). After 1971–1973, the suicide rate increased again, reaching another peak in 1996–1998 (16.7 deaths per 100,000 population). After this point, the suicide rate declined up until the most recent period, 2001–2003 (14.2 deaths per 100,000 population) by 15.0 percent



note - The first antidepressants were introduced in the 1950s. There was no increase in the suicide rate (there wasn’t a decrease either, but that’s grist for another mill). The suicide rate began to increase in the early 70s. Fluoxetine, the first SSRI wasn’t licensed by the FDA until 1987. If anything, the suicide rate plateaued then, but more likely that’s just a blip in an ongoing increase that continued until the late 1990s – since which time the rate has decreased (“despite” all the SSRIs we’re using). In other words, antidepressant medications do not appear to affect the overall suicide rate