Children with chronic, unexplained abdominal pain are far more likely to suffer from anxiety when they grow up – even if the stomach problems eventually disappear, a new study shows.
Of adults who had abdominal pain as children, 51 percent had experienced an anxiety disorder during their lives, compared to 20 percent of those who didn’t experience tummy aches as children, according to research published in Pediatrics Monday. As adults, a full 30 percent of the childhood abdominal pain sufferers were still coping with some kind of anxiety disorder, compared to 12 percent of their no-pain peers.
