Abuse Linked to Psychosis
A MedWire News article tells of a study published recently in the British Journal of Psychiatry testing possible links between childhood abuse and psychotic episodes in early adolescence. It comes as no surprise that the study found a strong link between childhood physical abuse and later psychosis. What I found interesting is that the study also found a stronger correlations with childhood bullying and exposure to domestic violence than with sexual abuse.
The importance of this study for youth-serving organizations is that bullying can be every bit as damaging as the forms of abuse that we traditionally watch for and try to prevent.
For lawyers, the takeaway is that in litigation involving this sort of claim, we need to investigate domestic violence in the home and bullying at other venues. Our expert witnesses need to address those issues, and either rule them out or account for them as complicating factors when assessing damages.
