Frequency of development of emotional disturbances in school-aged children with various somatoform disorders

In recent years, the problem of diagnosis and treatment of somatized autonomic dysfunction in children has become extremely important due to its high prevalence and propensity for a cyclical, long-term course. Aim - to investigate the frequency of the development of affective states in children with various somatoform disorders depending on the age, gender of the children, and their place of study. Materials and methods. 380 school-age children were examined, of which 11.8% were of primary school age (6-9 years), 54.7% of early adolescence (10-14 years) and late (15-18 years) adolescence age - 33.5%. Personal anxiety was studied using the Spielberg-Khanin method, and the spectrum of depressive disorders using the M. Kovacs (1992) childhood depression questionnaire. The probability of differences was assessed using the Student’s two-sample t-test. Values were considered probable p<0.05. Results. Personal anxiety was found in all children (100%) with cardio-respiratory and pain and non-specific somatoform disorders, somewhat less often in children with somatoform disorders from urinary system (82.8%) and functional gastrointestinal disorders disorders (81.1%). Depression was most often diagnosed in children with pain and non-specific somatoform disorders (55.2%) and in children with respiratory somatoform disorders (53.6%). It is much less common from the side of the cardiovascular system (27.7%). Conclusions. Functional gastrointestinal disorders (37.6%) and cardio-respiratory disorders (31.8%) are the most common in school-age children; somewhat less frequently, somatoform disorders from the urinary system (15.3%) and painful and non-specific disorders were found among the examined children. somatoform disorders (15.3%). In the vast majority of children, somatoform disorders were associated with affective states. Anxiety of varying degrees of severity occurred with the same frequency in individuals of different sexes, while depressive disorders were significantly more common in girls and in children of younger adolescence (10-14 years). The research was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of the Helsinki. The research protocol was approved by the ethics committee for all participants. Parents’ informed consent was obtained for the research. The authors declare no conflict of interest.