[Abdominal pain and defecation disorders without a known organic origin: importance of the psychodiagnosis].
The authors submitted some children examined in the Division of Pediatric Surgery of the Ospedali Galliera in Genoa to a psychodiagnostic evaluation. They presented abdominal pain and defecation disorders, whose organic etiology was not demonstrated. The psychodiagnostic evaluation, consisting in colloquia, tests, drawings and plays, was completed in 11 of the 28 patients referred. A profoundly disturbed and protagonist mother-child relationship and a frequent "border position" of the father was focused. The symptoms disappeared in 8 of the 11 patients during the diagnostic evaluation, that resulted, its own, therapeutic. 3 patients were treated with psychotherapy and a remarkable improvement at 6 months from the beginning of therapy was noticed. Seventeen patients were lost because they didn't come to the outpatient dates or because they were already followed by other specialists in their residential zones. The authors believe that a psychodiagnostic evaluation is important in children with abdominal pain and defecation disorders whose organic origin has not been demonstrated.