{"id":25455,"date":"2025-04-16T18:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T18:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/25455\/"},"modified":"2025-04-16T18:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T18:42:12","slug":"experts-have-found-the-best-treatment-for-a-tummy-ache-and-you-cant-buy-it-in-a-pharmacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/25455\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts have found the ‘best treatment’ for a tummy ache – and you can’t buy it in a pharmacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By SABRINA PENTY<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 19:33 EDT, 15 April 2025 | Updated: 22:09 EDT, 15 April 2025 <\/p>\n

Hypnotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy are the best treatments for long-term stomach pain in children, a new study suggests.<\/p>\n

Experts said more needs to be done to make these therapies available for children in the UK and to tackle the ‘prejudice’ linked to psychosocial treatments for abdominal pain.<\/p>\n

It comes after a new study saw researchers analyse various treatments for chronic stomach pain, including irritable bowel syndrome, abdominal migraines, and unexplained pain.<\/p>\n

These conditions affect up to 12% of children and it is estimated they cause ‘chronic, debilitating pain’ in 300 million children globally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team examined 91 studies involving more than 7,200 children aged four to 18.<\/p>\n

The studies assessed dietary treatments; medicines; probiotics; psychosocial treatments including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and hypnotherapy.<\/p>\n

The team of academics, led by experts at the University of Central Lancashire, found that ‘hypnotherapy and CBT show moderate certainty for treatment efficacy with clinically relevant effect sizes’.<\/p>\n

Hypnotherapy is 68% more successful and CBT 35% more successful than taking no action, the university said.<\/p>\n

\"Hypnotherapy <\/p>\n

Hypnotherapy and CBT are the best treatments for long-term stomach pain in children, according to a new study\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0But ‘no conclusions can be made about the other therapies and treatment success due to very low evidence certainty’, the authors wrote in the journal Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.<\/p>\n

Study lead author Professor Morris Gordon, from the University of Central Lancashire’s School of Medicine said: ‘In the UK, almost one in 20 of every single children’s appointment in a hospital outpatients will be explicitly for this problem compared to all other problems.<\/p>\n

‘So it’s a huge burden, not just on the NHS, but, more importantly, for the kids and of course their families – they can’t go to school, they can’t function… You’ve got someone who was a high-flying gymnast or had a really good hobby – BMXing, and you name it – I’ve heard both of those examples in the last couple of years, and it’s gone. It’s done.’<\/p>\n

He went on: ‘We have found that hypnotherapy and CBT have the best evidence of providing successful treatment and to reduce pain.<\/p>\n

‘Other therapies have evidence of an effect, but, due to systematic concerns with the findings, no conclusions can be drawn at the moment.’<\/p>\n

Professor Gordon, who carried out the study with colleagues from the Netherlands and Florida in the US, said a new guideline for treating abdominal pain in children has been created off the back of the study.<\/p>\n

‘Currently, there no guidelines available for medical practitioners so treatment methods are sporadic with no real evidence to underpin them,’ he said.<\/p>\n

‘One GP may prescribe probiotics while another may prescribe pain medication, whereas others prefer a diet or a psychological treatment.<\/p>\n

‘This analysis provides, for the first time, an accurate way of grading the success rate of treatments.’<\/p>\n

‘All that matters is the right outcome for the child and the family,’ he said.<\/p>\n

The professor added: ‘It is important to point out that we’re not suggesting the condition is psychological because we don’t know of a single definite cause in these cases.<\/p>\n

‘What we’re suggesting is the best way to manage it, taking into consideration the frequency and severity of the pain, the way they impact a patient’s life, and the side-effects of treatments.<\/p>\n

Share or comment on this article:
\n Experts have found the ‘best treatment’ for a tummy ache – and you can’t buy it in a pharmacy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By SABRINA PENTY Published: 19:33 EDT, 15 April 2025 | Updated: 22:09 EDT, 15 April 2025 Hypnotherapy and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[92,577,105,211,3053,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-25455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-nhs","12":"tag-the-netherlands","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114349116386851798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}