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Bullying can lead to mental illness, says study

Friday, 1 May 2009

Bullying can increase the risk of children suffering from psychotic symptoms by up to four times, researchers revealed today.

Effects included hallucinations, paranoid delusions – such as believing they are being spied on – and irrational thought.

Psychologists followed 6,437 children from birth to 13 years. The children took part in annual face-to-face interviews, as well as psychological and physical tests. Parents were also asked to complete questionnaires about their sons' and daughters' development.

At the age of 13, the children were interviewed about their experiences of psychotic symptoms in the previous six months. Those who suffered physical or emotional bullying were twice as likely to develop psychotic symptoms by early adolescence as children who were not bullied. Children who experienced sustained bullying over a number of years could be four times more at risk.

Professor Dieter Wolke said: "Our research shows adverse social relationships with peers may increase the risk of developing psychosis in adulthood."

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Call in the police
[info]blether2 wrote:
Friday, 1 May 2009 at 05:57 am (UTC)
Seems obvious enough.

But mental illness ? We'd better allocate half of the police force to the problem, then. Massive police presence in schools, police armed with sub-machineguns; special teams dedicated to bullying; zero tolerance; big advertising campaigns. That's how it's done for cannabis, isn't t ?
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bullying
[info]doomsdaybug wrote:
Friday, 1 May 2009 at 07:59 pm (UTC)
It is not only children who can suffer mental illness resulting from bullying.
Adults arbitrarily deemed to be a threat to this institutionally nulabor government are subjected to ruthless and relentless bullying as part of a cynical attempt to induce mental illness in the target, whilst at the same time accusing the target of being insane.
The prolonged effect of bullying can also cause neurophysiological insult leading to permanent damage at the cellular kevel.
It has been demonstrated that the drip-drip effect of applied trauma causing permanent physical damage, and as seen via magnetic resonance imaging, defines the abuses as being no different in the long term than grievious bodily harm, as piont not lost on the Law Lords.
Call in the police.
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bullying
[info]basil57 wrote:
Friday, 1 May 2009 at 10:30 pm (UTC)
There we go again scientists telling us what we already know. My son was bullied at school and did develop a severe mental illness. Doctors never took any account of it and the school did nothing.
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The Chicken or the Egg
[info]nw3bk3y wrote:
Thursday, 23 July 2009 at 05:10 pm (UTC)
Just to be fair, it could be that the strange kids, the ones who seem different, are the ones singled out by the bullies to get picked on. Following that logic, it might be that the children getting picked on already have some kind of mental disorder. That does not discard the fact that bullying can exacerbate what might have been a minor mental problem in a child into a full blown disorder. The study does not indicate whether the children were healthy before the bullying took place and it doesn't control for the fact that many mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, do not become apparent until a person's late teens.
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