Published online Jun 28, 2006. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v12.i24.3874
Revised: July 15, 2005
Accepted: July 20, 2005
Published online: June 28, 2006
AIM: To assess the late outcome of teen-agers with a previous history of recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
METHODS: A group of 67 children with RAP referred to the department from January 1986 to December 1995 was followed up between 5 and 13 years after the initial diagnosis by means of a structured telephone interview. We hypothesized that those patients with persistent adult IBS-like symptoms would be significantly more likely to report a family history of IBS in comparison with adults with no persistent abdominal complaint.
RESULTS: Out of the 52 trackable subjects, 15 were found to present IBS-like symptoms at follow-up (29%) whereas the majority (37 subjects) did not. Subjects with IBS-like symptoms were almost three times more likely to present at least one sibling with similar symptoms compared to subjects not complaining (40.0% vs 16.0%), respectively (P < 0.05 at Student t test). Subjects with IBS-like symptoms also reported a higher prevalence of extra-intestinal symptoms, such as back pain, fibromyalgia, headache, fatigue and sleep disturbances.
CONCLUSION: The study confirms previous obser-vations indicating that pediatric RAP can predict later development of IBS. The latter appears to be greatly influenced by intrafamilial aggregation of symptoms, possibly through the learning of a specific illness behavior.