Researchers at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) have tested the first psychotherapeutic treatment of any kind for bullying—specifically weight-related bullying. It is important work, because no evidence-based treatments aimed at youth who experience bullying are currently in use, according to the researchers. Bullying can lead to a number of harmful results, such as social and academic difficulties, anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide.
Weight-related bullying, in particular, can be a precursor for eating disorders, weight gain, and obesity. Yet until now, efforts have been directed at reducing bullying rather than treating its victims. "Most of the research has been about preventing bullying from happening or helping schools to manage the effects of bullying, but nothing really for the individual patient, which is bizarre because we know that bullying has all of these really severe consequences," says Janet Lydecker, Ph.
D., assistant professor of psychiatry at YSM and first author of published in the on July 15. Lydecker and her team adapted a trauma-focused (TF-CBT) combined with CBT for eating disorders to treat youth who experienced weight-related bullying, called "TF-CBT-WB," (which stands for trauma-focused CBT for weight bullying), and tested its feasibility in 30 adolescents.
The study found that the treatment improved such symptoms as , eating disorder severity, and body image concerns. Lydecker hopes to expand on these promising results in future studies. A tr.