TY - JOUR
T1 - Psychological comorbidity and stress reactivity in children and adolescents with recurrent abdominal pain and anxiety disorders
AU - Dorn, Lorah D.
AU - Campo, John C.
AU - Thato, Sathja
AU - Dahl, Ronald E.
AU - Lewin, Daniel
AU - Chandra, Ramamurti
AU - Di Lorenzo, Carlo
PY - 2003/1
Y1 - 2003/1
N2 - Objective: To compare clinical symptoms, diagnoses, and physiological measures in children and adolescents with recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) (n = 14), to a group with anxiety disorders (ANX) (n = 14) and a physically and psychiatrically healthy control group (HC) (n = 14). Method: The cross-sectional study examined group differences in clinical symptoms of anxiety, somatic complaints, depression, and behavior problems. Physiological measures included heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and salivary cortisol in response to the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-C). Subjects were between the ages of 8 and 16 years. Results: RAP and ANX subjects had comparable scores on most psychological measures, and their scores were higher (p < .05) than those of the HC. The ANX and RAP groups exhibited physiological findings that had more shared similarities than either group with the HC group. Few statistically significant group differences were noted in physiological measures, yet the pattern of findings in blood pressure and cortisol supported the use of the TSST-C and the direction of the findings was consistent with expectations. Conclusions: Understanding more about comorbidity between RAP and anxiety could have important management implications, with observed congruities between the disorders suggesting treatments already demonstrated to be efficacious for pediatric anxiety and depression might be applied productively to RAP.
AB - Objective: To compare clinical symptoms, diagnoses, and physiological measures in children and adolescents with recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) (n = 14), to a group with anxiety disorders (ANX) (n = 14) and a physically and psychiatrically healthy control group (HC) (n = 14). Method: The cross-sectional study examined group differences in clinical symptoms of anxiety, somatic complaints, depression, and behavior problems. Physiological measures included heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and salivary cortisol in response to the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-C). Subjects were between the ages of 8 and 16 years. Results: RAP and ANX subjects had comparable scores on most psychological measures, and their scores were higher (p < .05) than those of the HC. The ANX and RAP groups exhibited physiological findings that had more shared similarities than either group with the HC group. Few statistically significant group differences were noted in physiological measures, yet the pattern of findings in blood pressure and cortisol supported the use of the TSST-C and the direction of the findings was consistent with expectations. Conclusions: Understanding more about comorbidity between RAP and anxiety could have important management implications, with observed congruities between the disorders suggesting treatments already demonstrated to be efficacious for pediatric anxiety and depression might be applied productively to RAP.
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U2 - 10.1097/00004583-200301000-00012
DO - 10.1097/00004583-200301000-00012
M3 - Article
C2 - 12500078
AN - SCOPUS:0037209211
SN - 0890-8567
VL - 42
SP - 66
EP - 75
JO - Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
JF - Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
IS - 1
ER -
