Special-needs youth with chronic medical conditions or developmental disabilities are at risk for anxiety and depression if they're excluded, ignored or bullied by other young people, a new small study says.
It included 109 youngsters, ages 8 to 17, who were recruited during routine visits to a U.S. children's hospital. The patients and their parents completed questionnaires that screen for symptoms of anxiety and depression, and the youngsters also completed a questionnaire that asked them about bullying or exclusion by their peers.
The patients in the study had one or more conditions such as: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (39 percent); cystic fibrosis (22 percent); type 1 or 2 diabetes (19 percent); sickle cell disease (11 percent); obesity (11 percent); learning disability (11 percent); autism (9 percent); and short stature (6 percent).
The researchers found that being bullied and/or excluded by peers were the strongest predictors of increased symptoms of depression or anxiety in the young patients.
Read more of the US News Healthday article HERE
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