Physical and emotional health of mothers of youth with functional abdominal pain.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if mothers of youth with functional abdominal pain (FAP) experience more anxiety, depressive, and somatic symptoms and disorders than mothers of unaffected children.


METHODS
Case-control study.


METHODS
Four primary care pediatric practices in western Pennsylvania.


METHODS
Mothers of 8- to 15-year-old children and adolescents presenting with FAP (59 cases) or for routine care in the absence of recurrent pain (76 controls).


METHODS
Questionnaires and blinded interviews assessing anxiety, depressive, and somatic symptoms and disorders; quality of life; and service use.


RESULTS
On univariate analyses, mothers of FAP cases were significantly more likely than mothers of controls to have a lifetime history of irritable bowel syndrome (odds ratio [OR], 3.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.5-10.3), migraine (OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.1-5.3), and anxiety (OR, 4.8; 95% CI, 2.2-10.6), depressive (OR, 4.9; 95% CI, 2.2-11.0), and somatoform (OR, 16.1; 95% CI, 2.0-129.8) disorders than mothers of controls, and current anxiety, depressive, and somatic symptoms, poorer overall quality of life, and greater use of ambulatory health, but not mental health, services. Multivariate logistic regression found pediatric FAP to be most closely associated with maternal history of anxiety and depression (adjusted OR, 6.1; 95% CI, 1.8-20.8).


CONCLUSIONS
Functional abdominal pain may be better conceptualized as a disorder of emotion than a narrowly defined disorder of gastrointestinal function. Low rates of mental health service use by mothers of youth with FAP suggest that family health and illness attitudes deserve study.
Campo
John V
JV
Department of Psychiatry, Columbus Children's Hospital, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43205, USA. campoj@chi.osu.edu
Bridge
Jeff
J
Lucas
Amanda
A
Savorelli
Steven
S
Walker
Lynn
L
Di Lorenzo
Carlo
C
Iyengar
Satish
S
Brent
David A
DA
D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015897:Comorbidity; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires