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(NOVEMBER 6, 2023) Christian Pulcini, M.D., M.Ed., M.P.H., assistant professor of emergency medicine, was interviewed by STAT for an article about a new study on the lasting effects of gun violence on young survivors.

The U.S. doesn’t collect national data on non-fatal injuries from gun violence, and there’s been little research that quantifies their effects, especially when it comes to children. A new study found increases in pain disorders, psychiatric disorders, and substance use disorders in survivors, as well as increases in psychiatric disorders among parents of survivors in the aftermath of the gun violence.

Research on the lasting effects of gun violence on survivors is “immature” compared to other fields of research, Pulcini told STAT. “I wish that I didn’t have to study this issue, and I wish these folks didn’t have to study this issue and show that this is such a societal problem that is understudied, underfunded, and unaddressed largely, comparatively to other things that cause injury and death among kids.”

Pulcini would love to see a large, prospective trial on survivors of gun violence that builds off this study, he said, but those sorts of studies cost millions of dollars. There’s more funding now than there used to be for this research, but still much less when compared to research areas with fewer youth deaths each year.

(This article was also published in The Boston Globe.)