Am J Psychiatry 1976; 133:20-25
Copyright © 1976 by American Psychiatric Association
Behavioral characteristics of children with chronic nonspecific diarrhea
EH Wender, FB Palmer, JJ Herbst and PH Wender
The authors obtained early case histories of 16 children with chronic
nonspecific diarrhea and 16 control subjects and found that the index
subjects had a significantly higher frequency of sleep problems, crying and
irritability, digestive problems excluding diarrhea, overactivity,
resistance to discipline, and family history of gastrointestinal problems.
They conclude that these behavioral characteristics represent temperamental
traits based on physiological factors, perhaps an imbalance of autonomic
nervous system function. They speculate that chronic nonspecific diarrhea
may occur in association with certain temperamental traits because both the
somatic and psychic components stem from a common disturbance in autonomic
nervous system function.
