Some feel that the rise in suicide as a leading cause of death is due not so much to an increase in numbers as to improved medical treatment for other previously high-frequency causes of death, such as tuberculosis.
有人卻認為，自殺死亡率在順位的上升，並不是人數有明顯的增加；而是因腸胃炎、結核病、肺炎等傳染病，隨著醫療水準的提高而逐漸減少，自殺的排名才得以前進。