There have been many instances in which lives have been saved by restricting access to a culturally acceptable method of suicide, Miller said.

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Dr David Gunnell and colleagues from Bristol University point out that the method of suicide favoured by women - drug overdose - has become less lethal owing to the replacement of barbiturates by the less toxic benzodiazepines in the 1980s.

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The police said the man, who is a foreign national, is thought to have committed suicide and might have also used another method in addition to drowning, such as taking an overdose.

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