Objective To assess the relation between being bullied or being a bully at school, depression, and severe suicidal ideation. Design A school based survey of health, health behaviour, and behaviour in school which included questions about bullying and the Beck depression inventory, which includes items asking about suicidal ideation. Setting Secondary schools in two regions of Finland. Participants 16 410 adolescents aged 14-16. Results There was an increased prevalence of depression and severe suicidal ideation among both those who were bullied and those who were bullies. Depression was equally likely to occur among those who were bullied and those who were bullies. It was most common among those students who were both bullied by others and who were also bullies themselves. When symptoms of depression were controlled for, suicidal ideation occurred most often among adolescents who were bullies. Conclusion Adolescents who are being bullied and those who are bullies are at an increased risk of depression and suicide. The need for psychiatric intervention should be considered not only for victims of bullying but also for bullies.

No abstract

The study aimed to investigate the associations between different levels of depression with different aspects of school performance. The target population included 2516 7th–9th grade pupils (13–17 years) of whom 90% completed the questionnaire anonymously in the classroom. Of the girls 18.4% and of the boys 11.1% were classified as being depressed (R‐Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Finnish version of the 13‐item BDI). The lower the self‐reported grade point average (GPA) or the more the GPA had declined from the previous term, the more commonly the adolescents were depressed. Depression was associated with difficulties in concentration, social relationships, self‐reliant school performance and reading and writing as well as perceiving schoolwork as highly loading. The school performance variables had similar associations with depression among both sexes when a wide range of depression was studied but gender differences appeared when studying the severe end of the depression scale. Our study indicates that pupils reporting difficulties in academic performance should be screened for depression.

No abstract

Short-term therapies produce benefits more quickly than long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy but in the long run long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy is superior to short-term therapies. However, more research is needed to determine which patients should be given long-term psychotherapy for the treatment of mood or anxiety disorders.

The aim of the study was to compare the screening properties of two General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) versions and the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90), and to evaluate them as psychiatric screening instruments in Finland. We administered the GHQ-36 and the SCL-90 to psychiatric outpatients (n=207) and to a community sample (n=315). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to estimate the screening performance of the two instruments and of the GHQ-12 extracted from the GHQ-36. The screening properties of the scales were found to be good and similar. Suggested optimal cut-off points were 3/4 for the GHQ-12, 8/9 for the GHQ-36 and 0.90/0.91 for the SCL-90. In conclusion, the scales functioned equally well in screening. This favors the GHQ-12 for pure screening. When information on the symptom level is also needed, the GHQ-36 and the SCL-90 become better choices. The cut-off points presented here should be considered in the future Finnish psychiatric screening studies.

Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are common among adolescents and can lead to severe psychosocial impairment, yet there is a lack of a good quality scale to measure symptoms of generalized anxiety in young people. The 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) is a self-report scale used to measure GAD symptoms and has been validated in adult populations, but the measure's psychometric properties regarding adolescents are unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability, factorial validity, and construct validity of the GAD-7 in adolescents in a nationally representative sample from a general population. Our study was based on Finnish survey data on 111,171 adolescents aged 14-18 years. Our results show that the GAD-7 demonstrates good psychometric properties in adolescents. The internal consistency of the GAD-7 was good (Cronbach's α = 0.91) and the instrument's unidimensional factor structure was supported. The associations of GAD-7 sum scores with self-report measures of depression and social anxiety supported construct validity. The psychometric properties of the GAD-7 in this sample of adolescents were similar to those reported among adults. However, studies in which diagnostic interviews are performed are needed to demonstrate the diagnostic efficacy of the measure in this age group.

The main objective was to analyse whether involvement in bullying at school predicts depression, and whether depression predicts involvement in bullying in middle adolescence. A total of 2,070 15-year-old girls and boys in two Finnish cities were surveyed at ninth grade (age 15) at schools, and followed up 2 years later in the Adolescent Mental Health Cohort Study (AMHC). Depression was measured by a Finnish modification of the 13-item short Beck Depression Inventory. Involvement in bullying was elicited by three questions focusing on being a bully, being a victim to bullying, and being left alone by peers against one's wishes. Similar questions were posed at both time points. Statistical analyses were carried out using cross-tabulations with chi-square/Fisher's Exact Test statistics, and logistic regression. The results summarized that, both being a victim to bullying and being a bully predicted later depression among boys. Among girls, depression at T1 predicted victimisation at T2. Depression at T1 predicted experience of being left alone at T2 among both sexes. It was concluded that victimisation to bullying may be a traumatising event that results in depression. However, depression also predicts experience of victimisation and of being left alone against one's wishes. Depression may impair an adolescent's social skills and self-esteem so that the adolescent becomes victimised by peers. However, depression may also distort and adolescent's experiences of social interactions.