clipped from: uk.reuters.com   

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Being bullied in childhood doubles a young person's likelihood of having psychotic symptoms in early adolescence, UK researchers report.

In fact, with longer-lasting and more severe bullying comes greater risk, Dr. Andrea Schreier of Warwick Medical School in Coventry, England and her colleagues found.

"Chronic or severe peer victimization has non-trivial, adverse, long-term consequences," they write in the Archives of General Psychiatry. "Reduction of peer victimization and the resulting stress caused to victims could be a worthwhile target for prevention and early intervention efforts for common mental health problems and psychosis."

Both kids and adults "commonly" have psychosis-like symptoms or experiences, without full-blown mental illness,
Nearly 14 percent of the children had definite or suspected psychotic symptoms,
Overall, 46 percent of the children reported having experienced victimization