THURSDAY, Sept. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Childhood bullying or victimization may predict later psychiatric issues, suggesting that this issue deserves greater attention from school professionals and the public, according to research published in the September issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Andre Sourander, M.D., of the Turku University Hospital in Finland, and colleagues analyzed data from 5,038 Finnish children born in 1981 who had information available that they, their teachers, and their parents provided about their bullying and victimization status at 8 years of age. Parents and teachers also responded to scales to assess the children's psychiatric symptoms. Psychiatric hospital and psychopharmacological treatment was followed in these children to the age of 24 years.
Among females, the researchers found that frequent victim status in childhood predicted hospital treatment and use of antidepressant, antipsychotic, and anti-anxiety drugs, when controlled for their psychopathology score. In males, frequent bully-only and bully-victim status predicted the use of different medications and hospital treatment, but the associations were lost when controlling for childhood psychopathology score.
"As later psychological disorders have been found to be associated with individuals displaying childhood bullying behaviors, there is a need for the integration of mental health services into the school context. It is important to inform policymakers, school professionals, and the public about the potential short-term and long-term consequences of bullying and victimization," the authors conclude.
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