Pain and depression in children and adolescents

Abstract

There has been disagreement about at which age children begin to feel pain. Evidence that newborn infants too experience pain has been presented. The understanding of the meaning of pain is dependent on the level of congnitive ability consistent with Piagetian stages and on earlier experiences of pain. Attempts to express pain experiences by numbers have only been made during the last few years, and children can use scales to describe their pain from about five years of age. Chronic pain without an identifiable organic aetiology is mostly located in the abdominal area or the head. There are some associations between recurrent abdominal pain and depression in children. The two conditions have a similar family background and symptoms of pain are common also during a depressive episode in younger children.

□ Childhood pain, Childhood depression, Development, Pain experience.