title: Maintenance of Pain in Children With Functional Abdominal Pain.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A significant proportion of children with functional abdominal pain develop chronic pain. Identifying clinical characteristics predicting pain persistence is important in targeting interventions. We examined whether child anxiety and/or pain-stooling relations were related to maintenance of abdominal pain frequency and compared the predictive value of 3 methods for assessing pain-stooling relations (ie, diary, parent report, child report).
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy-six children (7-10 years old at baseline) who presented for medical treatment of functional abdominal pain were followed up 18 to 24 months later. Baseline anxiety and abdominal pain-stooling relations based on pain and stooling diaries and child- and parent questionnaires were examined in relationship to the persistence of abdominal pain frequency.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children's baseline anxiety was not related to persistence of pain frequency. Children who, however, displayed irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms at baseline maintained pain frequency at follow-up, whereas in children in whom there was no relationship between pain and stooling, pain frequency decreased. Pain and stool diaries and parent report of pain-stooling relations were predictive of pain persistence but child-report questionnaires were not.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The presence of IBS symptoms in school-age children with functional abdominal pain appears to predict persistence of abdominal pain over time, whereas anxiety does not. Prospective pain and stooling diaries and parent report of IBS symptoms were predictors of pain maintenance, but child report of symptoms was not.
authors: *Department of Pediatrics †Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine ‡Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, Texas §Indiana University School of Medicine & Riley Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic, Indianapolis ||Children's Nutrition Research Center, Houston, Texas ¶George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC.
authors: Danita I
authors: DI
authors: Czyzewski
authors: Mariella M
authors: MM
authors: Self
authors: Amy E
authors: AE
authors: Williams
authors: Erica M
authors: EM
authors: Weidler
authors: Allison M
authors: AM
authors: Blatz
authors: Robert J
authors: RJ
authors: Shulman
mesh_terms: D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D002648:Child; D003672:Defecation; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D043183:Irritable Bowel Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires