Functional dyspepsia in children: A study of pathophysiological factors

Background and Aim Functional dyspepsia (FD) is common in children, and treatment targeted towards the altered pathophysiology can improve outcome. We evaluated FD children for abnormality of gastric accommodation and emptying, psychological stressors (PS), Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection, and post‐infectious FD. Methods Diagnosis of FD was based on ROME III criteria. Clinical evaluation including dyspeptic symptom scoring and assessment for PS was performed. Satiety drink test for gastric accommodation, gastroscopy with biopsy for HP infection, and solid meal gastric emptying were performed. Sixty‐seven healthy children were enrolled for assessing PS and satiety drink test. Results Fifty‐five FD children (33 boys, age 12 [6–18] years) with symptoms for 4 (2–48) months and dyspeptic score of 5 (1–13) were enrolled. PS were more common in FD than in controls (46/55 vs 9/67; P