Self-hypnosis for the treatment of functional abdominal pain in childhood.

Functional abdominal pain, defined as recurrent abdominal pain in the absence of an identifiable physiologic cause, can respond to psychological intervention in appropriate patients. In this patient series, functional abdominal pain of 4 of 5 pediatric patients resolved within 3 weeks after a single session of instruction in self-hypnosis. The potential impact of widespread application of such hypnotherapy may be large, because abdominal pain is thought to be the most common recurrent physical symptom attributable to psychological factors among children and adolescents.