Can Anxious Moms Influence Kids' Pain?

May 10, 2005 — -- Twelve-year-old Jenna Gale was always on the go -- skateboarding, bike riding and playing with her fraternal twin sister, Caila. But one day, Jenna was mysteriously wracked with pain.

Caila remembers her sister's pain. "She'd be like, 'Ow! My knee hurts! When the air touches it, it really hurts.' And I'd just be like, 'Are you exaggerating, Jenna?'"

But Jenna wasn't exaggerating. She could barely stand -- she used crutches and then a wheelchair -- and missed school for months.

And the pain spread. "First it was in my knee, then it was it my shoulder and then it went to my head," Jenna said.

Children's Pain Poorly Understood

When it comes to chronic pain, the issues and questions are different for children. Because children may have a harder time communicating, determining the cause of a child's pain can be difficult for doctors.

Dr. Lonnie Zeltzer founded the Pediatric Pain Program at UCLA's Mattel Children's Hospital where Jenna and hundreds of other young patients are being tested for reactions to pain as part of a federally funded study.

Zeltzer's researchers are finding that, after the age of 13, tolerance for pain tends to increase for boys, while it decreases for girls. They believe this difference may be because boys' and girls' brains are wired differently.

The study also concludes that a mother's anxiety about her own pain and her child's pain may contribute to an adolescent girl developing chronic pain. But the researchers say that is less likely to happen with mothers and their adolescent sons.

Do Anxious Moms Contribute to Pain?

Jenna's diagnosis was "complex regional pain syndrome." But what triggered it is still a mystery.

Jenna Gale's mother, Debra, is recovering from 10 years of chronic fatigue syndrome and wonders whether Jenna's long exposure to her mom's condition could have played a role in the development of her chronic pain.

Zeltzer has seen the phenomenon before. Kellee Meyers, the mother of another of her young patients, admits she's anxious about her own pain from numerous surgeries and worries that her daughter, Haley, will develop the same "cycle of pain."

Haley, 7, is already being treated by Zeltzer for sleep problems.

Doctor Says Kids' Pain Is Treatable

While chronic pain in kids is mysterious, Zeltzer says it is real and it's treatable.

"In children, the body, the nervous system is still developing, so there's a lot of room for change and flexibility," she said.

Treating pain, she says, may involve several different types of therapies, including psychiatric treatment, hypnosis, acupuncture, yoga, craniosacral massage and other relaxation techniques.

Sometimes, Zeltzer and her team use art therapy to gauge a quiet child's pain, or she will use a technique called "energy work," which senses the body's energy.

Jenna has had energy work done, and while she admits it might be a little odd, "it really works."

Her mother is willing to do whatever it takes to help alleviate her daughter's pain. "I always said if I had to wave a dead chicken and do incantations, I would do it, if that's what was gonna get Jenna out of pain," she said.

And Zeltzer's combination therapies seem to be working. After two years of therapy, Jenna is getting better and out playing with her sister again.

"I have to keep working at it but I'm pretty much, like, it's getting a lot better and I don't have that much pain anymore," Jenna said.