CHICAGO (Reuters Health) - Seven to 15% of school-aged children are bullies and 1 in 10 school children is targeted by a bully, according to a report by the American Medical Association's Council on Scientific Affairs.

The report suggests that bullying can have long-term effects on both the bully and the bully's target.

American Medical Association (AMA) trustee Dr. Joseph Riggs recalled that as a child he was the target of an older boy, a memory that has not faded.

"He was beating me to a pulp and he didn't stop until I bloodied his nose," he said. While the incident didn't have any long-term adverse effects, he said, "these things stay with you. I still clearly remember that feeling of being punched and beaten."

Dr. Ron Davis, also an AMA trustee, said bullying is a public health problem. He urged physicians to read the new report and to work to implement its recommendations.

The report recommends that doctors:

--Increase vigilance for signs and symptoms of bullying and other sources of psychological distress in children and adolescents;

--Screen for psychiatric problems, such as depression, in at-risk patients;

--Counsel affected patients and families on intervention programs and coping strategies;

--Advocate for family, school and community programs and services for victims and for bullies.

Davis said it is especially important for physicians to bring this issue to their patients' schools because often schools are reluctant to recognize that bullying is a problem.

"If you ask at the school, they will say we don't have a problem. But it you can get the school to actually survey, they will find out they do have a problem," he said.

In other actions, the AMA rejected a request to support the Association of Professional Ringside Physicians. The ringside physician works to make boxing safer, but the AMA has policy asking for a ban on boxing. Davis said that physicians who are present at ringside are actually complicit in an act that "we know causes brain damage."

The AMA did approve a resolution that advocates the placement of automated external defibrillators in public buildings. The original resolution suggested that the defibrillators should only be placed in buildings where there are "personnel who have been properly trained in their use," but that limitation was deleted after several delegates testified that the devices are practically foolproof.

Dr. Joseph Snyder, a delegate from Maryland, said his life was saved "because someone used an automated external defibrillator on me when I was traveling home from an AMA meeting in Hawaii."

Reference Source 89

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