A family with abdominal pain

We present the case history of a middle-aged woman with a "battle scarred" abdomen who has had abdominal pain for over 20 years and more than 36 hospital admissions in this time. Her children have also had 25 hospital admissions for abdominal pain and three normal appendices removed. This complaint of recurrent abdominal pain not due to a physical disorder is conceptualised in terms of abnormal illness behaviour rather than in traditional terms such as hysteria and hypochondriasis.