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Association of Eating Disorders with Recurrent Pain in Adolescent Girls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

N. Semenova*
Affiliation:
Scientific Research Institute of Medical Problems of the North, Department Of Child’s Physical And Mental Health, Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation
H. Slobodskaya
Affiliation:
Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution «Scientific Research Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine», Department Of Child Development And Individual Differences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation
E. Rezun
Affiliation:
Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution «Scientific Research Institute of Neurosciences and Medicine», Department Of Child Development And Individual Differences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Eating disorders (ED) are associated with other mental illnesses, but the association of ED with pain is less well understood.

Objectives

To study the association of ED with headache and abdominal pain in adolescent girls.

Methods

In 2015-2018, 917 girls aged 12-17 were examined using the Body Image and Eating Distress scale (Koskelainen et al., 2001) and questions about frequency of recurrent headache and abdominal pain over the past six months. Adolescents were divided into three groups: girls with eating disorders (ED, n = 20); subthreshold eating disorders (SED, n = 88); and a control group (CG, n = 809).

Results

Headaches of varying frequency are were reported by 80% of girls with ED, 70.4% of girls with SED and 52.2% of CG girls. Frequent headaches (every week) were reported by 60% of girls with ED, 40.9% of girls with SED, and 29.9% of CG girls (χ2 = 20.21, p = 0.003). Recurrent abdominal pain was reported by 65% of girls with ED, 56.8% of girls with SED, and by 46.6% of CG girls. Weekly abdominal pain affected 30% of girls with ED, 20.4% of girls with SED and 12.9% of CG girls. Combined weekly pain were commoner in girls with eating distress (in 20% of girls with ED and in 12.5% with SED) than in CG (7.7%, χ2 = 3.92, p = 0.04).

Conclusions

Eating disorders in adolescents are often associated with pain, which can lead to late recognition of the disease, worsening its course and prognosis.

Disclosure

The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant # 21-15-00033

Type
Abstract
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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