Somatoforme Störungen bei Kindern und Jugendlichen

Epidemiology of Somatoform Symptoms and Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…We maintain that the frst step in assisting them, as well as pediatricians and school nurses/ counselors, who are the nearest contact points, is to get an overview of the epidemiology of somatoform symptoms and disorders in childhood and adolescence. Furthermore, research in the feld of medicine and psychology would also beneft from a systematic aggregation of prevalence and incidence rates to avoid over-or under-estimations of their occurrence [5,[30][31][32][33][34][35]. Hence, the aim of the current systematic review and meta-analysis was to aggregate study fndings to answer the following question: What are the prevalence and incidence rates of somatoform symptoms and disorders in under-18-year-olds?…”

“…Children and adolescents may sufer from recurring medically unexplained or somatoform symptoms, such as headaches, abdominal pain, nausea, and dizziness, that signifcantly restrict their daily lives [1][2][3][4][5]. Tese physical symptoms, for which no sufcient organic cause could be found [6], were frst summarized under the DSM-III psychiatric diagnosis category of somatoform disorders in 1980 [7,8].…”

“…Somatoform symptoms and disorders have serious consequences at the individual, familial, and ultimately societal level [1,2,4,15]. During childhood and adolescence, somatoform symptoms and disorders are linked with low self-efcacy, increased withdrawal behavior, and the avoidance of school and social recreational activities [3,5,16,17]. Due to repeated school absences, academic achievement decreases [18] and the children are often pushed into an outsider role, bullied, and stigmatized by their peers, which in turn reinforces the tendency to avoid school [19,20].…”