The DOI matches its Crossref record; 12 of the 12 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Mental illness and reduction of gun violence and suicide: bringing epidemiologic research to policy
Open accessAbstract
PURPOSE: This article describes epidemiologic evidence concerning risk of gun violence and suicide linked to psychiatric disorders, in contrast to media-fueled public perceptions of the dangerousness of mentally ill individuals, and evaluates effectiveness of policies and laws designed to prevent firearms injury and mortality associated with serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders. METHODS: Research concerning public attitudes toward persons with mental illness is reviewed and juxtaposed with evidence from benchmark epidemiologic and clinical studies of violence and mental illness and of the accuracy of psychiatrists' risk assessments. Selected policies and laws designed to reduce gun violence in relation to mental illness are critically evaluated; evidence-based policy recommendations are presented. RESULTS: Media accounts of mass shootings by disturbed individuals galvanize public attention and reinforce popular belief that mental illness often results in violence. Epidemiologic studies show that the large majority of people with serious mental illnesses are never violent. However, mental illness is strongly associated with increased risk of suicide, which accounts for over half of US firearms-related fatalities. CONCLUSIONS: Policymaking at the interface of gun violence prevention and mental illness should be based on epidemiologic data concerning risk to improve the effectiveness, feasibility, and fairness of policy initiatives.
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Cites
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Psychological autopsy studies of suicide: a systematic review.
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Self-citationPescosolido, B. A., Martin, J. K., Long, J. S., Medina, T. R., Phelan, J. C., & Link, B. G. (2010) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.09121743 · Cited by 1,262
Excess Mortality in Bipolar and Unipolar Disorder in Sweden
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Media contagion and suicide among the young
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Ludwig, J. (2000) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.284.5.585 · Cited by 287 · cited 1×
“An earlier study by Ludwig and Cook [59] examined the effects of the Brady Law across all states and found that gun background checks and waiting periods significantly reduced suicide in the older population; these results, too, suggested that suicide is preventable by removing or restricting (or even delaying) access…”
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Self-citationGun control and suicide: The impact of state firearm regulations in the United States, 1995–2004
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Cited by
Prevention of Firearm Suicide in the United States: What Works and What Is Possible
Mann, J. J., & Michel, C. A. (2016) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.16010069 · Cited by 208
Yes, You Can: Physicians, Patients, and Firearms
Wintemute, G. J., Betz, M. E., & Ranney, M. L. (2016) · Annals of Internal Medicine · doi:10.7326/m15-2905 · Cited by 152
An Integrated Public Health Approach to Interpersonal Violence and Suicide Prevention and Response
Decker, M. R., Wilcox, H. C., Holliday, C. N., & Webster, D. W. (2018) · Public Health Reports® · doi:10.1177/0033354918800019 · Cited by 115
Lu, Y., & Temple, J. R. (2019) · Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2019.01.008 · Cited by 45
Matthay, E. C., Farkas, K., Rudolph, K. E., Zimmerman, S., Barragan, M., Goin, D. E., & Ahern, J. (2019) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.2019.305288 · Cited by 39
Metadata
- Authors
- Swanson, J. W., McGinty, E. E., Fazel, S., & Mays, V. M.
- Venue
- Annals of Epidemiology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-05
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 366-376
- ISSN
- 1047-2797 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2168540500
- Cited by
- 302
- References
- 12
- FWCI
- 25.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
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- Swanson, J. W., McGinty, E. E., Fazel, S., & Mays, V. M. (2015). Mental illness and reduction of gun violence and suicide: bringing epidemiologic research to policy. Annals of Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2014.03.004
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
