Long term follow up of children with recurrent abdominal pain

BMJ 1998;317:682 ( 5 September )

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Long term follow up of children with recurrent abdominal pain

Definition of recurrent abdominal pain was not applied

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Definition of recurrent abdominal pain was not applied

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Large longitudinal studies of children with recurrent abdominal pain, such as the one Hotopf et al conducted, are needed.Current knowledge is limited, and studies on the long term followup of patients with recurrent abdominal pain should fill the gaps.Hotopf et al have addressed this important subject by trying toanswer two questions, as the title of their paper indicates.¹The prevalence of recurrent abdominal pain in their cohort (2%)was lower than that reported in cross sectional studies (8-12%). ² ³ This suggests problems with the collection and reliability ofthedata.

Hotopf et al's first question was, "Why do children have chronic abdominal pain?" Their study was not, however, designed toanswer this question. They did not have enough information anddid not look for any to help them identify possible causes ofabdominal pain. The subjects of the study were identified froma cohort born . . . [Full text of this article]

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Why do children have chronic abdominal pain, and what happens to them when they grow up? Population based cohort study: Matthew Hotopf, Siobhán Carr, Richard Mayou, Michael Wadsworth, and Simon Wessely
BMJ 1998 316: 1196-1200. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]