Children and Adolescents with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: More Psychologically Distressed than Other Children in Pain?

Abstract

As a group, clinic-referred children with CRPS may be more functionally impaired and experience more somatic symptoms compared with children with other pain conditions. However, overall psychological functioning as assessed by self-report appears to be similar to that of children with other chronic pain diagnoses. Comprehensive assessment using a biopsychosocial framework is essential to understanding and appropriately treating children with symptoms of CRPS.

Complex regional pain syndrome in children: incidence and clinical characteristics

“…Some parents had to give up work to look after their children, which may lead to economic loss to the family, adding to the distress caused by the disease. Children with CRPS were shown to report greater functional disability and more somatic symptoms than children with headache or back pain 27. However, they have normal scores for depression and anxiety 28.…”

Adolescent-Centered Pain Management in School When Adolescents Have Chronic Pain-A Qualitative Study

“…Another study showed that children with greater physical disability reported fewer missed school days than children with headache or abdominal pain (Logan et al, 2013), which most adolescents in this study had. The economic costs of chronic pain also need to be taken into consideration.…”

Continuous Regional Anesthesia and Inpatient Rehabilitation for Pediatric Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

“…We additionally performed an exploratory analysis comparing first visit characteristics of our CRPS population with other cohorts of patients with CRPS seeing at our clinic (reported in a previous study) 16 around the same timeframe. In comparison to this previous cohort, the current patient sample showed no significant differences in demographic variables (including age, sex, racial identification, lower extremity involvement, or sidedness) or in initial clinical variables including pain scores, function scores, depression or anxiety scores (data not shown).…”

“…6,14,15 Most therapies have been tried in an uncontrolled manner, with small samples or as single case reports. 15,16 Our own prospective study of lumbar sympathetic blockade 9 was performed as an exploratory study of the involvement of sympathetic mechanisms using a double-blind crossover design with 2 injections via indwelling catheters. These patients subsequently received open-label infusions through lumbar sympathetic and lumbar epidural catheters; this study was not designed as a fully controlled clinical effectiveness study.…”