BULLYING AND PHYSICAL COMPLAINTS
Saturday, October 26, 2013 at 5:49PM
Dr. Payton in BULLYING, STRESS AND CHILDREN, children, somatic complaints

Children who are being bullied are more than twice as likely to have psychosomatic [physical complaints caused by stress] complaints compared to children who are not being bullied.  This was reported in a study in Pediatrics by G. Gini, Ph.D. and T. Pozzoli, Ph.D.  They did a meta-analysis of 30 studies involving more than 219,000 children who had psychosomatic symptoms.  Some of the children had been bullied.  The study determined that any repeated and/or unexplained somatic [physical] symptoms are a warning sign of the possibility that the child is being bullied. The somatic complaints can include: recurrent headaches. breathing problems, poor appetite, sleeping problems, etc.  

So, if your child has somatic complaints with no reason for them besides stress [psychosomatic] then it is very important to check for bullying as one of the causes of the stress. 

Article originally appeared on Leading Asheville, North Carolina Psychiatrist for over 40 years (http://ashevillepsychiatrists.com/).
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