Self-report assessment of recurrent abdominal pain.
Pain is the principal, and often the only symptom in cases of recurrent abdominal pain (RAP). The purpose of this study was to analyze the clinical background behind the pain symptom and the pain's capacity for differentiation in the diagnostic assessment of a group of 86 children suffering from RAP and observed at a pediatric gastroenterology service. The self-rating methods applied to the children included a verbal scale and a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for scoring the pain, and the Eland method, which is based on a graphic representation of the pain to enable its quantification and localization. Regardless of the pain assessment emerging from this study, the children were divided into 3 groups on the basis of a standardized diagnostic procedure, i.e. G1--upper gastrointestinal tract disease; G2--RAP with no apparent organic cause; G3--intestinal disease.


RESULTS
The intensity of the pain fails to distinguish between the three groups, while other features seem more useful, e.g. variability in the pain's intensity, the number and location of painful sites, and the how the pain is graphically represented. Drawings typical of RAP with no apparent organic cause characteristically represent the pain more accurately and in greater detail, using more colors and a certain refinement in the performance of the drawing, with varying types of pain in subsequent episodes, and involving several abdominal and even extra-abdominal sites. In our experience, this method might contribute towards the completion and standardization of the child's clinical history and clinical evaluation. Such methods would have to be validated by further clinical studies, however.
Guariso
G
G
Dipartimento di Pediatria, Università di Padova, Italia.
Mozrzymas
R
R
Gobber
D
D
Benini
F
F
Zancan
L
L
Zacchello
F
F
D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010147:Pain Measurement; D012008:Recurrence; D012648:Self Care