Children Experiencing Frequent Stomach Pains at Higher Risks of Anxiety Disorders, Depression in Adulthood

Children suffering from frequent stomach pains without any known medical reason are more likely to experience anxiety and depression that lasts into their adulthood, a new study says.

To analyze the link between stomach pain and the mental conditions, Dr. Lynn S. Walker and colleagues from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee looked at 478 children and followed them to their adulthood. Of the total children, 332 had functional abdominal pain (FAP) and 147 of the cohort did not have the condition.

Functional abdominal pain is the term used to describe the chronic, recurrent abdominal pain that does not have any clear medical reason.

All the participants were monitored and followed until early adulthood. At age 20, researchers investigated prevalence of psychiatric or functional gastrointestinal disorders among the participants.

At the end of the study, more than half of the participants (51 percent) with a history of functional abdominal pain at childhood were diagnosed with anxiety disorder, compared to the participants who didn't have any history of functional abdominal pain (20 percent). Similarly, the prevalence of depression was also high among the functional abdominal pain group (40 percent) compared to the control group (16 percent).

According to the authors, children with functional abdominal pain are at a greater risk of experiencing anxiety later in life, even after they are rid of the stomach pain episodes completely.

"Patients with FAP carry long-term vulnerability to anxiety that begins in childhood and persists into late adolescence and early adulthood, even if abdominal pain resolves," the authors, while concluding their study, wrote.

The study has been published in Pediatrics.

According to the Boston Children's Hospital, functional abdominal pain may be caused by "abnormalities in the nervous system that create an oversensitivity to physiological stimuli" and exposure to psychological stress can worsen the stomach pain.

About 10 to 15 percent of school-going children in the country are affected by this problem.  Experts recommend parents to encourage their children to develop good coping skills through relaxation techniques. Apart from that, medications, acupuncture, reiki or Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation unit (TENS) can also be helpful.