Advice for somebody who considers to join a PHD program in order to go to research about the possibly negative sides A friend of mine considers to join a PhD program in order to go to science. I think she has a very idealized view of science and the prospects there. (I personally am somebody who left science after 10y, without big damage to my life, career or psychological health). I don't want to convince this friend not to follow this path, but I like to give her a realistic list of major problematic points, psychological stress factors, negative outcomes.

I already gave her some first-hand accounts and these were similar to questions asked here very often. The problem is that I can not quantify the likeliness of the following:


psychological problems during the PhD/Postdoc
stress due to workload
stress due to uncertainity
bad supervision (supervisor incapable or unwilling or good supervision)
continued unresolved conflicts in the lab
bad leadership 
nepotism of group leaders towards friends/s.o. in the group (e.g. on publication)
scientific misconduct (unintentional), e.g. bad data handling, p-value hacking etc.
scientific misconduct (intentional), e.g. faking data, plagiarism 
sabotage of others experiments
thesis stopped due to discontinued interest of supervisor


The point is: I don't want to hear horror stories (seen and heard enough of them, personally and here an stackexchange), but i like to have data (e.g. statistics, studies) which actually quantify the issues in a cpmprehensive way from the viewpoint of a new PhD student. Where can i find such data?
There are some 2008 statistics on PhD completion at Ph. D Completion and Attrition

The ten year completion rates vary drastically by field: 62% for Chemistry but only 41% for Computer Science.

Part of the variation may be to do with the availability of attractive jobs that do not require a PhD. I personally knew at least one person who came to work for my employer as an operating systems developer after starting a Computer Science PhD and deciding it was too theoretical for his taste. He didn't need a PhD to have a successful career in his chosen field.

From reading questions here, the anecdotal evidence is that the worst pain is among those who are very strongly committed to an academic career, and therefore cannot do what the OP did, walk away "without big damage to my life, career or psychological health".

The OP, and especially the OP's friend, need to balance the problems with the joy and fun of immersion among people who share your enthusiasm for a particular field. A PhD may be the right choice for the friend, even though it was not the right choice for the OP. People are different.