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Abdominal pain is a frequent complaint in adolescents and has been associated with social withdrawal, school absenteeism, and poor quality of life (Pediatrics 2006; 117:54). To determine whether abdominal pain is also associated with depressive symptoms among U.S. adolescents, investigators evaluated cross-sectional data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Their analysis included interview data collected in 1995 from 20,745 children aged 13 to 18 years. Frequency of abdominal pain was categorized as rare (0–1 episodes weekly), occasional (2–3 episodes weekly), or daily (≥4 episodes weekly). Depressive symptoms were scored using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).
Daily abdominal pain was repo…