Kamila S White1, Albert D Farrell. 1. Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-Saint Louis, 63121-4499, USA. kswhite@bu.edu
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To examine the relations among anxiety, psychosocial stress, and headache and abdominal pain complaints within the context of the Biobehavioral Model of Pediatric Pain. METHODS: Adolescents from urban schools serving a predominantly African-American population completed measures of pain, anxiety, witnessing violence, problem situations, and victimization at the end of the seventh grade (N = 502) and 6 months later (longitudinal N = 289). RESULTS: A high prevalence of weekly headaches (40%) and abdominal pain (36%) was reported. Anxiety partially mediated relations between psychosocial stress and pain at Time 1, particularly for problem situations. Longitudinal models showed that adolescents reporting higher levels of pain at Time 1 reported greater increases in victimization and anxiety at Time 2. Changes in pain were positively correlated with changes in anxiety and stress variables. CONCLUSIONS: Implications for understanding the causes and correlates of headache and abdominal pain in normal children are discussed.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the relations among anxiety, psychosocial stress, and headache and abdominal pain complaints within the context of the Biobehavioral Model of Pediatric Pain. METHODS: Adolescents from urban schools serving a predominantly African-American population completed measures of pain, anxiety, witnessing violence, problem situations, and victimization at the end of the seventh grade (N = 502) and 6 months later (longitudinal N = 289). RESULTS: A high prevalence of weekly headaches (40%) and abdominal pain (36%) was reported. Anxiety partially mediated relations between psychosocial stress and pain at Time 1, particularly for problem situations. Longitudinal models showed that adolescents reporting higher levels of pain at Time 1 reported greater increases in victimization and anxiety at Time 2. Changes in pain were positively correlated with changes in anxiety and stress variables. CONCLUSIONS: Implications for understanding the causes and correlates of headache and abdominal pain in normal children are discussed.
Authors: Milena De Felice; Michael H Ossipov; Ruizhong Wang; Gregory Dussor; Josephine Lai; Ian D Meng; Juliana Chichorro; John S Andrews; Suman Rakhit; Shawn Maddaford; David Dodick; Frank Porreca Journal: Brain Date: 2010-07-13 Impact factor: 13.501