Parental Involvement in Psychological Interventions for Recurrent Abdominal Pain in Childhood

Abstract

There are a variety of different psychological interventions used to treat recurrent abdominal pain in childhood. Active components in these interventions are unclear. Parents play an important role when it comes to their children's response to pain and management of pain, and are regularly involved in interventions. Four electronic databases were searched (CINAHL Complete, Medline, APA PsychArticles and APA PsychInfo) in order to examine in what ways parents are involved across different therapeutic modalities, and interventions delivered in a variety of formats. In this descriptive review of the literature, 30 studies were included with a total of 1848 participants ranging from age 4–18. The review also discusses the outcomes of studies involving parents. Most of the studies in this review involved parents through psycho-education about pain and strategies for managing pain, however, it remains unclear how parental involvement impacts outcomes. Further research is needed to determine the active components in psychological interventions for recurrent abdominal pain. This research should also include how parental involvement impacts these interventions.