People often use the phrase “growing pains” to talk about muscle or joint pain in young people. Health professionals also use this term.
Researchers, on the other hand, have discovered that there is no agreed-upon medical definition for the condition that leads to a diagnosis.
Researchers from the University of Sydney conducted a thorough examination of the medical literature and discovered that there is no consensus among academics and practitioners regarding the definition, meaning, and diagnosis of growing pains.
Growing pains, according to experts, can be a medical misnomer. Surprisingly, over 93% of studies did not include growth in their definitions of the condition.
More than 80% of the studies had no definition that included age.
The researchers’ conclusions have led them to advise against clinicians and other researchers using the term “growing pains” as a stand-alone diagnostic unless a precise definition supported by facts has been defined.
The results of the study were published in Pediatrics today.
Growing pains are regarded as one of the most prevalent causes of persistent musculoskeletal discomfort in children and adolescents. According to some research, the illness may affect up to one-third of youngsters at some time in their lives.
In 1823, the term was first used in a book called “Maladies de la Croissance,” which means “diseases of growth.”
Healthcare professionals identify thousands of children with growing pains, but the team was interested to know what that diagnosis actually meant, according to the main author Dr. Mary O’Keeffe of the University of Sydney’s Institute for Musculoskeletal Health.
The researchers pulled data from 147 studies on growing pains.
The objective was to determine how the term was defined by researchers and to determine whether any specific diagnostic criteria existed. Research of many different kinds, such as systematic reviews, editorials, observational studies, case-control studies, and theses, were included in the medical literature.
Professor Steven Kamper from the School of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney and the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District remarked, “What we found was a little concerning: that there is no consistency in the literature on what ‘growing pains’ means.”
The definitions were extremely ambiguous, inconsistent, and varied. According to certain studies, developing pains could occur in the lower body or the arms. Some said it had to do with muscles, while other research focused on joints.
Less than 10 percent of the papers analyzed, or seven studies acknowledged growth in relation to pain. In more than 80 percent of the studies, it was not mentioned what age a child was when experiencing “growing pains.”
Additionally, there was little to no agreement or specific information regarding the location of the pain or when it occurred.
In studies, “growing pains” were described as occurring in the lower limbs in 50 percent of cases, and in the knees in 28% of cases.
48 percent of studies found that “growing pains” happen in the evening or at night, and 42 percent found that they happen more than once.
According to senior author Professor Steve Kamper, “growing pains” might signify many different things to different people while being a term that is frequently employed to describe musculoskeletal pain.
“This level of uncertainty means clinicians don’t have a clear guide or criteria to know when the label ‘growing pains might be appropriate for a patient’.”
The study also highlighted fresh issues about whether growing pains are related to bone or muscle growth.
Growing pains as a condition – and how it is connected to growth, or even the reason for the pain, are not well understood, according to Dr. O’Keeffe.
“There is a real opportunity to understand this condition – given how widespread the use of the term is, or whether there is even a need to use this term.”
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