Dec 5, 2025 09:32 PM
(This post was last modified: Dec 6, 2025 12:47 AM by C C.)
The presence of a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide by three to five times
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1108748
INTRO: In addition to posing physical and life risks, access to firearms has an impact on mental health. It increases suicides, intensifies psychological fragility, and amplifies violence. This is the conclusion of a study published in the September issue of the scientific journal Harvard Review of Psychiatry.
The study was led by researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of São Paulo’s Medical School (FM-USP) in Brazil. The researchers conducted a systematic review of 467 studies from various countries published up to March 2023. Most of the studies – 81% (378) – were conducted in the United States; 6% were conducted in Western Europe; 4% in Australia; and 3% in Canada. The rest were conducted in other regions.
The analysis explored the links between access to firearms, aggressive behavior, substance use and abuse, social and domestic violence, and their influence on mental health. Three psychological mechanisms related to these factors were identified.
The first is that weapons facilitate impulsive acts in times of crisis or distress. Suicide was the main outcome, appearing in 284 studies (61% of the total). The analysis showed that the presence of a firearm in a home increases the risk of suicide three to fivefold, regardless of the individual’s previous mental health status. When firearms are stored safely, this risk decreases but remains high.
A second mechanism is that the weapon acts as a kind of “psychological amplifier,” exacerbating certain mental health conditions. Rather than alleviating feelings of fear and anxiety, the weapon exacerbates them, leading to aggression. Additionally, it exacerbates the symptoms of trauma in individuals exposed to armed violence, creating a feedback loop that intensifies suffering rather than alleviating it.
Finally, the weapon serves as a symbol that transforms power dynamics and perceptions of vulnerability. This exacerbates controlling behaviors and leads to cases of social and domestic violence... (MORE - details, no ads)
The alarming rise of young scientists’ deaths in China raises global concerns
https://interestingengineering.com/cultu...l-concerns
EXCERPTS: The latest shock came from an online database compiled on CSND, a popular platform for programmers. According to a file shared there and later reported by the South China Morning Post, at least 76 researchers under the age of 60 had died in the first ten months of 2025, compared with 44 for the whole of the previous year. Among the youngest was 33-year-old oceanographer Dong Sijia, an assistant professor at Nanjing University who had returned from a promising career in the United States.
The list has electrified Chinese social media and academia. For many, the raw numbers seem to confirm a sense that something is going badly wrong in universities and laboratories. Intense competition, endless grant-writing, and performance metrics that reward output over well-being.
Others, however, warn that the database is incomplete, may contain classification errors, and lacks a clear baseline for comparison with the broader population, making it impossible to treat it as a definitive mortality statistic. The debate itself reveals a system under strain, where even counting the dead has become politically and emotionally charged.
[...] The authors found that suicides among academics and students have increased over time, with most victims being younger scholars and students, and argued that these deaths reflect systemic pressures, not isolated individual tragedies. They called for the issue to be explicitly recognised as a public health problem, urging better data collection, attention to structural causes, and reforms to academic culture...(MORE - details)
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1108748
INTRO: In addition to posing physical and life risks, access to firearms has an impact on mental health. It increases suicides, intensifies psychological fragility, and amplifies violence. This is the conclusion of a study published in the September issue of the scientific journal Harvard Review of Psychiatry.
The study was led by researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of São Paulo’s Medical School (FM-USP) in Brazil. The researchers conducted a systematic review of 467 studies from various countries published up to March 2023. Most of the studies – 81% (378) – were conducted in the United States; 6% were conducted in Western Europe; 4% in Australia; and 3% in Canada. The rest were conducted in other regions.
The analysis explored the links between access to firearms, aggressive behavior, substance use and abuse, social and domestic violence, and their influence on mental health. Three psychological mechanisms related to these factors were identified.
The first is that weapons facilitate impulsive acts in times of crisis or distress. Suicide was the main outcome, appearing in 284 studies (61% of the total). The analysis showed that the presence of a firearm in a home increases the risk of suicide three to fivefold, regardless of the individual’s previous mental health status. When firearms are stored safely, this risk decreases but remains high.
A second mechanism is that the weapon acts as a kind of “psychological amplifier,” exacerbating certain mental health conditions. Rather than alleviating feelings of fear and anxiety, the weapon exacerbates them, leading to aggression. Additionally, it exacerbates the symptoms of trauma in individuals exposed to armed violence, creating a feedback loop that intensifies suffering rather than alleviating it.
Finally, the weapon serves as a symbol that transforms power dynamics and perceptions of vulnerability. This exacerbates controlling behaviors and leads to cases of social and domestic violence... (MORE - details, no ads)
The alarming rise of young scientists’ deaths in China raises global concerns
https://interestingengineering.com/cultu...l-concerns
EXCERPTS: The latest shock came from an online database compiled on CSND, a popular platform for programmers. According to a file shared there and later reported by the South China Morning Post, at least 76 researchers under the age of 60 had died in the first ten months of 2025, compared with 44 for the whole of the previous year. Among the youngest was 33-year-old oceanographer Dong Sijia, an assistant professor at Nanjing University who had returned from a promising career in the United States.
The list has electrified Chinese social media and academia. For many, the raw numbers seem to confirm a sense that something is going badly wrong in universities and laboratories. Intense competition, endless grant-writing, and performance metrics that reward output over well-being.
Others, however, warn that the database is incomplete, may contain classification errors, and lacks a clear baseline for comparison with the broader population, making it impossible to treat it as a definitive mortality statistic. The debate itself reveals a system under strain, where even counting the dead has become politically and emotionally charged.
[...] The authors found that suicides among academics and students have increased over time, with most victims being younger scholars and students, and argued that these deaths reflect systemic pressures, not isolated individual tragedies. They called for the issue to be explicitly recognised as a public health problem, urging better data collection, attention to structural causes, and reforms to academic culture...(MORE - details)