Bullying can lead to teen psychotic issues

COVENTRY, England, May 5 (UPI) -- Children who are bullied appear more likely to develop psychotic symptoms in early adolescence, British researchers said.

A study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, found the risk of psychotic symptoms was approximately doubled among children who were victims of bullying at age 8 or 10, independent of other psychiatric illness, family adversity or the child's IQ. The association was stronger when victimization was chronic or severe.

Andrea Schreier of Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, and colleagues studied 6,437 individuals in early adolescence -- average age 12.9 -- who were part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

The parents had completed regular mailed questionnaires about their child's health and development since birth, and the children underwent yearly physical and psychological assessments from age 7.

At each visit, trained interviewers rated the children on whether they had experienced psychotic symptoms -- hallucinations, delusions or thought disorders -- during the previous six months.