Category: Andrew M. Seaman

New evidence of lifelong effects of childhood bullying

By Andrew M. Seaman

The negative physical and mental effects tied to bullying among children and teens may accumulate throughout the years, according to a new study.

Researchers found that teens who had been bullied in the past and those currently being bullied tended to have a lower quality of life, compared to those who were bullied less or not at all.

This finding and previous research on the effects of bullying suggest more rigorous work should be done on finding ways to intervene and stop bullying, said the study’s lead author.

“I think this is overwhelming support for early interventions and immediate interventions and really advancing the science about interventions,” Laura Bogart, from Boston Children’s Hospital, told Reuters Health.

In the past, when researchers have surveyed students at one point in time, children and teens who were being bullied tended to score lower on measures of physical and mental health.

But few studies have examined whether the possible effects of bullying accumulate over the years, the researchers write in the journal Pediatrics.

They analyzed data from the Healthy Passages study, which surveyed students in Alabama, California and Texas about how much bullying they experienced and evaluated their physical and mental health.

Overall, 4,297 students completed the surveys in fifth, seventh and 10th grades.

The researchers found that about a third of the students had been regularly bullied at some point during the course of the study.

Generally, those who had been bullied in the past scored better on measures of physical and mental health, compared to those who were currently being bullied. Teens who were bullied throughout their school career scored the worst.

For example, about seven percent of 10th grade students who had never been bullied scored low on mental health measures. That compared to 12 percent who had been bullied in the past, 31 percent who were currently being bullied and almost 45 percent of those who underwent persistent bullying.

About eight percent of 10th grade students who were never bullied had poor physical health, compared to 12 percent of those who were bullied in the past, 26 percent who were currently being bullied and 22 percent who were continuously bullied.

Poor mental health included traits such as being sad, afraid and angry, according to Bogart. Poor physical health included limitations like not being able to walk far and not being able to pick up heavy objects.

“I think one key thing to take from this is that any adult that has any contact with children . . . (should) know what the signs of bullying might be,” Bogart said. “This study tells us some of them, but not all of them.”

“There are physical signs, but they’re not always physical,” she said.

For example, one non-physical sign that a young person is being bullied is that the child doesn’t want to go to school.

Bogart also said it’s important for parents to know if their child falls into one of the groups at high risk for bullying. Those groups include children with physical disabilities, those who are overweight and obese and those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or questioning.

“I think this says – especially for parents – to be really attuned to what’s going on in their kids’ lives by paying attention, knowing what’s going on during the school day and being aware so they’ll notice changes like these,” she said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/uFc4g2 Pediatrics, online February 17, 2014.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/17/us-effects-bullying-kids-idUSBREA1G0PU20140217

On By A.P.In Andrew M. Seaman, bullying, Pediatrics1 Comment

More evidence that mindfullness meditation can help with anxiety, depression and pain

On By A.P.In Allan Goroll, Andrew M. Seaman, Anxiety, Depression, Harvard Medical School, JAMA Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Madhav Goyal, mantra meditation, Medicine, Meditation, mindfullness, mindfulness meditation, Neuropsychiatric Disease, Pain, ScienceLeave a comment

mindfulness-meditation

By Andrew M. Seaman

Mindfulness meditation may be useful in battles against anxiety, depression and pain, according to a fresh look at past research.

Using data from 47 earlier studies, researchers found moderate evidence to support the use of mindfulness meditation to treat those conditions. Meditation didn’t seem to affect mood, sleep or substance use.

“Many people have the idea that meditation means just sitting quietly and doing nothing,” wrote Dr. Madhav Goyal in an email to Reuters Health. “That is not true. It is an active training of the mind to increase awareness, and different meditation programs approach this in different ways.”

Goyal led the study at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

He and his colleagues write in JAMA Internal Medicine that meditation techniques emphasize mindfulness and concentration.

So-called mindfulness meditation is aimed at allowing the mind to pay attention to whatever thoughts enter it, such as sounds in the environment, without becoming too focused. Mantra meditation, on the other hand, involves focusing concentration on a particular word or sound.

Approximately 9 percent of people in the U.S. reported meditating in 2007, according to the National Institutes of Health. About 1 percent said they use meditation as some sort of treatment or medicine.

For the new report, the researchers searched several electronic databases that catalog medical research for trials that randomly assigned people with a certain condition – such as anxiety, pain or depression – to do meditation or another activity. These randomized controlled trials are considered the gold standard of medical research.

The researchers found 47 studies with over 3,500 participants that met their criteria.

After combining the data, Goyal said his team found between a 5 and 10 percent improvement in anxiety symptoms among people who took part in mindfulness meditation, compared to those who did another activity.

There was also about a 10 to 20 percent improvement in symptoms of depression among those who practiced mindfulness meditation, compared to the other group.

“This is similar to the effects that other studies have found for the use of antidepressants in similar populations,” Goyal said.

Mindfulness meditation was also tied to reduced pain. But Goyal said it’s hard to know what kind of pain may be most affected by meditation.

The benefits of meditation didn’t surpass what is typically associated with other treatments, such as drugs and exercise, for those conditions.

“As with many therapies, we try to get a moderate level of confidence that the therapy works before we prescribe it,” Goyal said. “If we have a high level of confidence, it is much better.”

But he noted that the researchers didn’t find anything more than moderate evidence of benefit from meditation for anxiety, depression and pain.

There was some suggestion that meditation may help improve stress and overall mental health, but the evidence supporting those findings was of low quality.

There was no clear evidence that meditation could influence positive mood, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep or weight.

“Clinicians should be prepared to talk with their patients about the role that meditation programs could have in addressing psychological stress, particularly when symptoms are mild,” Goyal said.

Dr. Allan Goroll, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new study, told Reuters Health the analysis is an example of an area of much-needed scientific study, because many people make treatment decisions based on beliefs – not data.

“That is particularly the case with alternative and complimentary approaches to treating medical problems,” he said. “It ranges from taking vitamins to undergoing particular procedures for which the scientific evidence is very slim but people’s beliefs are very great.”

Goroll is professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Goyal said people should remember that meditation was not conceived to treat any particular health problem.

“Rather, it is a path we travel on to increase our awareness and gain insight into our lives,” he wrote. “The best reason to meditate is to gain this insight. Improvements in health conditions are really a side benefit, and it’s best to think of them that way.”

SOURCE: bit.ly/WiwDtv JAMA Internal Medicine, online January 6, 2014.