Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders: Biopsychosocial Perspectives on Assessment and Treatment
Dr. Danda is the recipient of the IFFGD 2003 Research Award to Pediatric Investigator, Clinical Science.
Summary
As many as 10-20% of school-age children experience bellyaches severe enough to affect activities. Not all of these children seek medical treatment or experience chronic, continuous abdominal pain. A subset of children present to their clinician with symptoms sufficient to meet criteria for a functional gastrointestinal disorder (e.g., functional dyspepsia, irritable bowel syndrome). Past research on childhood abdominal pain used a broad description – recurrent abdominal pain (RAP). My research focuses on examining the psychosocial contributions to these functional gastrointestinal disorders and determining whether there are different psychosocial factors (e.g., emotional or behavioral symptoms, developmental stressors, family communication patterns) associated with the specific functional gastrointestinal disorders.
I am particularly interested in identifying factors that predispose children and adolescents with functional gastrointestinal disorders to experience disability and identifying psychosocial factors that affect treatment outcome. I am collaborating on a research project collecting data to provide a description of the developmental, psychosocial, and social factors influencing children with functional abdominal pain disorders and compare medical ) and psychological treatment for functional dyspepsia. In addition to comparing treatment modalities, we hope to identify factors associated with treatment outcome. Essentially, we want to find out which treatments work for which patients. Treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders does not appear to be "one size fits all."