TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gross, Martina
A1  - Warschburger, Petra
T1  - Chronic abdominal pain psychosocial strain and treatment-associated changes in coping
JF  - Verhaltenstherapie
N2  - Background: Chronic abdominal pain (CAP) in childhood is a commonly occurring condition and shows a high stability. Psychosocial dysfunctioning of children, such as increased stress experience, is a burden for children and parents and complicates clinical management. Additional comorbid disorders may develop. To minimize the onset of such disorders, treatment at an early stage and taking psychosocial aspects into consideration is strongly recommended. Through this approach, the cognitive-behavioral, child-centered group program 'Stop the pain with Happy-Pingu' was developed, applied, and subsequently evaluated. What is the psychosocial situation of the affected children? Can the cognitive-behavioral group program be applied to improve psychosocial limitations? Method: The cognitive-behavioral group program comprises 6 weekly sessions for children and 1 single meeting for parents. In a randomized controlled study, the program was evaluated with 29 children aged between 6 and 12 years. The evaluation was based on a comparison between the intervention group (IG) and the waiting list control group (WLC), measured at 3 measurement points: T1 (pre), T2 (post), and T3 (3-month follow-up). Results: Emotional problems in particular can emerge in children with CAP. The program was well received, with a high level of participation through to completion. The results demonstrate that children participating in the IG experience significant stress reduction and improved psychosocial functioning compared to children participating in the WLC. The effect sizes range from medium to high. Conclusions: Drawing upon the above findings, multimodal cognitive-behavioral techniques appear to be suitable to successfully treat children with CAP. However, further controlled studies are required to identify the specific elements of the training that are most effective in reducing pain.
KW  - Cognitive-behavioral therapy
KW  - Children
KW  - Abdominal pain
KW  - Psychosocial functioning
KW  - Coping
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1159/000351215
SN  - 1016-6262
VL  - 23
IS  - 2
SP  - 80
EP  - 89
PB  - Karger
CY  - Basel
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gross, Martina
A1  - Warschburger, Petra
T1  - Evaluation of a cognitive-behavioral pain management program for children with chronic abdominal pain - a randomized controlled study
JF  - International journal of behavioral medicine : the official journal of the International Society of Behavioral Medicine
N2  - Background Chronic abdominal pain (CAP) in childhood is widely prevalent and has adverse effects on mental health and quality of life. Earlier research emphasized the positive effects of psychological intervention on pain symptoms. This study describes the results of a cognitive-behavioral pain management program for children with CAP. The newly developed cognitive-behavioral group program, "Stop the pain with Happy-Pingu," includes six sessions for the children and one meeting for the parents.
 Purpose We hypothesized that the training would significantly reduce pain symptoms (frequency, duration, intensity, and pain-related impairment) and increase health-related quality of life compared to wait-list controls, with improvement seen both at the end of treatment and at a 3-month follow-up.
 Method In all, 29 children were randomized into two groups: 15 in the intervention group (IG) and 14 as the wait-list controls (WLC). An intent-to-treat analysis was performed using two-factorial multivariate analyses of variance with repeated measures.
 Results Children in the IG experienced both a reduction in pain (primary outcome) and an improvement in health-related quality of life (secondary outcome) as compared to the WLC. The effect sizes ranged from medium to high.
 Conclusion Cognitive-behavioral methods seem to be appropriate for treating children with CAP.
KW  - Chronic abdominal pain
KW  - Children
KW  - Cognitive-behavioral treatment
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-012-9228-3
SN  - 1070-5503
VL  - 20
IS  - 3
SP  - 434
EP  - 443
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  -