Unexplained Stomachaches in Kids Linked to Anxiety and Depression

Children who complain of chronic stomach pain for which there is no clear medical origin are much more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression at some point in their adolescence or early adult life.

Published in the journal Pediatrics, the study tracked 330 children with unexplained chronic abdominal pain, also known as function abdominal pain syndrome (FAPS), over the course of nine years, at which point a psyciatric exam was conducted. The average age of the participants at the end of the study was 20 with four out of 10 who suffered as a child still reporting a gastrointestinal disorder.

The researchers discovered that those who suffered from FAPS as children were four to five times more likely to demonstrate a risk of anxiety disorders.

Specifically, the researchers determined that 51 percent of those with stomach pain when they were young had experienced an anxiety disorder at some point, while 30 percent met the criteria for diagnosis at the time of the interview.

On the other hand, only 20 percent of those without FAPS as a child had ever had an anxiety disorder and only 12 percent currently met the diagnostic criteria.

Depression was also linked to FAPS with 40 percent of adults who experienced chronic stomach pain as a child reporting having had experienced depression during their lifetime, versus just 16 percent of those in the control group.

However, the issue remains a "chicken or the egg" riddle for researchers who are unsure which comes first for these individuals -- the anxiety or the abdominal pain.

One possibility is that children with anxiety are simply hypersensitive to pain and more concerned about any they experience.

"People who are anxious tend to be very vigilant to threat, scanning their environment or their body for something that might be wrong," study author Lynn Walker from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine told Reuters, adding that this can often lead to a "vicious cycle" as those children end up staying home from school end up falling behind, leading to more anxiety.

Another possibility is that children become hypersensitive as a result of their stomach pain.

Either way, when it comes to helping children with FAPS, Walker proposes a holistic approach.

"We think that chronic pain is better treated in a multidisciplinary fashion, in which you not only have to look for a disease," she told LiveScience, "but you also look at emotional and psychological aspects of it, an address all of those together in an integrated fashion."