Kids who dwell on or “catastrophize” chronic stomach pain is likely having lower quality of life than kids with a better attitude.
However, the study showed that parents can help their children learn to cope, Fox News reported.
Study co-author Claudia Calvano of the University of Potsdam in Germany said that if the kids think, ‘My pain will not stop,’ then this can lead to further impairment and increase psychological strain.
The researchers looked at two types of stomach pain, organic pain- the kind for which doctors can identify a medical cause, and another type was functional pain- with no clear source.
They examined data on 170 kids and teenagers ages 8 to 18 and found that poor coping skills, and not gender, economic status, or type of abdominal pain, was directly tied to lower quality of life scores.
Calvano said that it is very important that a parent acknowledge the pain and not deny it, but he or she then needs to introduce the child to healthy coping strategies.
The researchers also suggested that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a way to better handle the pain
Source: medindia.com