F.A.D.
K’s pain consultant has now decided that he may not have nerve damage (as the pain meds have had little real effect) but may be suffering from Functional Abdominal Disorder (FAD).
Apparently this is a condition in which the normal movements of the gut are mis-interpreted/perceived as pain and can be quite common in children (though not normally of this duration or intensity). Since there’s nothing actually physiologically wrong, there’s nothing to “fix” and it becomes more of a neurological problem.
So she is referring him for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and, after doing a little research on the subject, I can understand why. Seems it’s been quite successful in treating the problem when more common drug-based therapies have failed. At the very least, they should be able to help him to develop psychological strategies for coping with the pain.
Now we just have to wait for an appointment (there’s a 14-16 week waiting list). He didn’t have a good time last week. Ended up off school again and in pain most of the week.
i would recommend care with taking on any treatment that has as its assumption the idea that your son’e illness is psychologically based. too often doctors retreat to this idea when they don’t know what is wrong. it can become a way to blame the patient. and if there is an actual physical problem treatments like CBT can make things worse by forcing actions and attitudes which overide the bodies signals to be gentle.
it may be worth investigating spastic bowell, or spastic colon. it is pretty common, it seems, and while not curable can be managed.
Thank you for your comments.
There’s no suggestion that FAD is psychologically based. It’s very real physical pain. The only difference is that the issue seems to be one of nerve sensitivity. Rather than the nerves responding to a physiological problem, they are responding to normal gut movement in an abnormal manner. The therapy (which my son has since finished and found extremely helpful) was to enable him to develop strategies to deal with the pain and the effect it has on him & other people. Spastic bowel/colon was investigated and ruled out some time ago.