Cyclical vomiting transient in most kids: study

Cyclical vomiting transient in most kids: study
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Parents of cyclical vomitersrest assured: Results of a study suggest that cyclical vomitingin children resolves in most cases, often soon after a formaldiagnosis has been made, although other somatic symptoms --that is, physical symptoms believed to be caused bypsychological stress -- may persist.
Cyclical vomiting syndrome describes periods of intensevomiting lasting hours to days with symptom-free intervalsspanning weeks to months, the authors explain, but little isknown about the outcome of cyclical vomiting in children.
Dr. Marion Rowland and colleagues from UCD School ofMedicine and Medical Science, Dublin, Ireland investigated thecurrent status of 41 children diagnosed with cyclical vomitingsyndrome between 1993 and 2003.
At the time of diagnosis, 41 percent of children hadmonthly vomiting episodes, 37 percent had at least one episodeevery 3 months, and 22 percent had intervals between episodesexceeding 3 months.
More than 70 percent of the children could identify atrigger factor, more often a non-noxious exciting event (44percent) than a noxious trigger (22 percent) for theirepisodes, Rowland and colleagues report. Specific foodstuffstriggered cyclical vomiting in only two children (5 percent).
By an average of about 4.5 years after diagnosis, 61percent of children had been free of vomiting episodes for atleast a year, while only 39 percent continued to vomit.
Among the children in whom cyclical vomiting had ceased,resolution had occurred within weeks of diagnosis in 16 (39percent overall).
Resolution of cyclical vomiting did not correlate withduration or severity of the condition or with any othervariable analyzed, the investigators say.
Even after resolution of cyclical vomiting, most childrencontinued to experience a variety of somatic symptoms,including headache (40 percent) and stomachache (36 percent).
In the 39 percent of children with persistent cyclicalvomiting syndrome, the caregiver felt that the symptoms wereeasier to deal with after a diagnosis had been made andinformation about the syndrome had been provided, theresearchers note.
SOURCE: Archives of Disease in Childhood, November 2007.