Teenagers are significantly more likely to self-harm if they were bullied while they were in primary school, a new study has found.

Deliberate self-harm can include a suicide attempt that did not succeed, as well as self-harming incidents where suicide was not the intent. Such incidents may stem from a desire to communicate or relieve stress and can include drug overdoses and self-cutting.

According to the National Registry of Deliberate Self-Harm, in 2011, over 9,800 people in Ireland attended hospitals as a result of more than 12,200 acts of self-harm. The problem was most common among teenage girls, aged between 15 and 19.

This latest study from the UK shows that being bullied in early childhood increases the risk of self-harm during adolescence.

It involved almost 5,000 young people who had been taking part in an ongoing study. The participants were assessed to see if they had been bullied between the ages of seven and 10. They were then assessed for self-harm behaviours at the age of 16-17.

The study found that 16% of the teenagers had self-harmed in the previous 12 months and one in four of these admitted that they did so because they ‘wanted to die'.

However the researchers noted that those who were badly bullied as children were almost five times more likely to self-harm in adolescence.

According to Prof Dieter Wolke of the University of Warwick, these findings are ‘further evidence for doing away with the myth that bullying at a young age can be viewed as a harmless rite of passage'.

"I'd like to see clinicians routinely asking children about bullying - from name calling to more physical acts of abuse. The importance of this early intervention should not be understated. If we were able to eliminate bullying, while other exposures remained constant, there would be a potential to prevent 20% of all self-harm cases," he explained.

Prof Wolke noted that many children who are being bullied ‘suffer in silence', never telling anyone about their ordeal.

He added that while bullying also increases the risk of depression, many teenagers in this study self-harmed even though they were not depressed.

"It is important that when children or adolescents show signs of self-harm or indications of non-specific symptoms, such as recurrent headaches, stomach aches, avoidance to go to school, we consider bullying as a possible cause and provide them with support," he said.

Details of these findings are published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.