School bullies are far more likely to report depressive symptoms than other youngsters.

That is one of the findings of a new report compiled by psychiatrists at the Warneford Hospital's Highfield adolescent unit in Oxford.

The national study, which interviewed a total of 904 pupils between the ages of 12 and 17, also found that victims of bullying, who tended to be the younger pupils in secondary schools, were more anxious than their peers.

Bullying was found to be less common than previously thought with 4.2 per cent of youngsters saying they had been regularly bullied.

In previous studies up to ten per cent of pupils reported being bullied regularly. Although strategies to control bullying had helped, the report published in today's British Medical Journal (FRID) revealed that they appeared to have been more successful among boys than girls.

Dr Gill Salmon, a senior registrar in child and adolescent psychiatry, said: "Girls do tend to do indirect bullying which tends to be spreading rumours and sending people to Coventry. Boys are more likely to call names or use violence."

The project revealed that bullies were more than three times more likely to report depressive symptoms than other children.

Dr Tony James, a consultant adolescent psychiatrist, said: "From other work, we know that lots of people who have bullied have a history of being bullied themselves so it's not entirely out of the blue. I would encourage more schools to have a bullying policy because it looks like it's working." Dr Salmon said: "It's certainly true in teenage boys that one of the symptoms of depression can be aggression and when you treat depression, aggression seems to improve."

She added that being bullied could also have an impact on a child's mental health.

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