The findings of a new study revealed that kids and teens battling attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and are taking prescription medicines to treat the mental health problem are at high risk of being bullied compared to their peers.

The findings of the study showed that adolescents who sold their prescribed drugs to other kids had more than four times greater odds of being bullied compared to their peers who don’t have this mental health problem.

Study lead author Quyen Epstein-Ngo, a researcher at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, said, “Our findings show that there is some connection between a prescription for stimulant medications and bullying, even after accounting for the fact that adolescents with ADHD may have difficulties with peers or may have other problem behaviors associated with victimization”.

Furthermore, in order to access the link between ADHD medication and bullying, it was decided to survey middle and high school students for a period of four years.

The survey involved about 5,000 youngsters, out of total participants 15% had an ADHD diagnosis and nearly 4% teens were prescribed stimulants within the past 12 months.

Findings published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology showed that about 2% of the teens reported regularly experiencing both physical and emotional bullying, while 15 % said they had never been victimized.

Over 1% of the youth said they were regularly bullied physically, whereas 2.5% reported frequent emotional mistreatment.

According to study authors, the only limitation of the study was that they lacked data on drug dosage. The survey didn’t recorded the time when teens with ADHD may have given away or sold their stimulant medications without being asked.