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Parents' experience when their child has chronic abdominal pain: a qualitative study in Norway
Anne Brodwall1, Kari Glavin2, Per Lagerløv3
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Vestre Viken Trust, Baerum, Norway.
Insights
Parents of children with functional abdominal pain need better guidance. Many parents worry about undetected conditions and struggle to manage their child's pain, highlighting the need for improved pain management strategies.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Gastroenterology
- Child Psychology
- Family Medicine
Background:
- Functional abdominal pain is common in children and adolescents.
- It is diagnosed by excluding other somatic diseases.
- Current explanations for pain experiences are often insufficient.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore parental experiences with children diagnosed with functional abdominal pain.
- To understand challenges faced by families after hospital discharge without a somatic explanation.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative study design utilizing open-ended interview questions.
- Interviews conducted in various settings (hospital, home, workplace).
- Descriptive content analysis of transcribed interviews.
Main Results:
- Parents described shared focus on the child's condition, sibling neglect, and desire for a treatable diagnosis.
- Anxiety about undetected conditions persisted, leading to requests for further examinations.
- Some parents recognized social factors influencing pain and difficulty distinguishing anxiety from physical sensations.
- Families required professional guidance for pain management.
Conclusions:
- Diagnosis of functional abdominal pain should be followed by comprehensive pain management strategies.
- Healthcare providers can better support families by focusing on coping mechanisms and guidance.
Objective:
Functional abdominal pain occurs frequently in children and adolescents. It is an exclusion diagnosis; somatic diseases have to be ruled out. However little explanation is given for why the child is experiencing pain. The aim was to explore the experiences of parents of children with chronic abdominal pain discharged from hospital without a somatic explanation.
Design:
The study has a qualitative design. The open questions concerned pain experiences and management. Interviews were conducted at the hospital, at the parents' workplace or in their homes, audiotape recorded and transcribed. A descriptive content analysis was used to analyse the transcribed text.
Setting:
Parents of children referred from general practice located in urban and rural areas in two municipals in Norway.
Participants:
Fourteen parents of children with functional abdominal pain aged 5-15 years.
Results:
Fourteen parents participated. Some explained that their child's disability glued the parents together on a common project to help the child. Other parents could tell that siblings got less attention and complained about too much fuss during pain. Parents wished for diagnosis that could be treated efficiently. Some were still anxious that an undetected condition triggered pain. They prompted their doctor to do further examinations. However, some parents knew that social factors could inflict pain and were concerned that their child was unable to distinguish sensations like anxiety and 'butterfly' tensions from physical pain. The parents and children needed professional guidance on how to manage the pain .
Conclusion:
The doctor's consultation should not end at the diagnosis of functional abdominal pain. Doctors may help these families further by focusing on pain management strategies.