Physical and psychological evaluation of 'non-organic' abdominal pain.

EDITORIAL COMMENT A study of the psychiatric background of patients with abdominal pain without demonstrable physical disease. The patients came from significantly larger sibships than a control population and scored high for 'neuroticism'. The patients' symptoms often began in a setting of bereavement or some other upheaval in their lives. A number of patients were considerably depressed when seen and treatment for depression was followed by disappearance of pain. This offers an important therapeutic approach in many patients.