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Bullying involvement in relation to personality disorders: a prospective follow-up of 508 inpatient adolescents

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Abstract

We examined the association of bullying behavior in adolescence to personality disorder (PD) diagnosed in early adulthood. The study sample consisted of 508 adolescents (300 girls, 208 boys) who were admitted to psychiatric inpatient treatment between April 2001 and March 2006. Data were based on semi-structured K-SADSPL-interviews and hospital treatments extracted from the Care Register for Health Care (CRHC). At the end of 2013, details of psychiatric diagnoses recorded on hospital discharges and outpatient visits were extracted from the CRHC. This study showed that female victims of bullying have an almost fourfold likelihood of developing a PD later in life compared to adolescents with no involvement in bullying behavior. Most of the females had Borderline PD. Female adolescents diagnosed with anxiety disorder during adolescence had an over threefold risk of developing a PD during late adolescence or early adulthood. Conversely, we found no associations between bullying involvement among men in adolescence and subsequent PDs. Bullying victimization may influence the development of PDs among females. Adolescent services should pay particular attention to female victims of bullying and those displaying symptoms of anxiety disorders.

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Acknowledgements

This study received support from the Finnish Medical Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Unit of Clinical Neurosciences, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Henna Antila, Riikka Arola & Pirkko Riipinen

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Oulu University Hospital, P.O. Box 26, 90029, Oulu, Finland

    Helinä Hakko & Liisa Kantojärvi

  3. Department of Adolescent Psychiatry, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland

    Kaisa Riala

Authors
  1. Henna Antila
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  2. Riikka Arola
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  3. Helinä Hakko
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  4. Kaisa Riala
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  5. Pirkko Riipinen
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  6. Liisa Kantojärvi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liisa Kantojärvi.

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All human and animal studies have been approved by the appropriate ethics committee and have, therefore, been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. All patients and their parents or their guardians gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. The identity of the patients under study cannot be revealed from the results.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Antila, H., Arola, R., Hakko, H. et al. Bullying involvement in relation to personality disorders: a prospective follow-up of 508 inpatient adolescents. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 26, 779–789 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-017-0946-6

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