Which season is the worst for pediatric pain and mental health?
Are Pain and Mental Health Seasonal?
Do pediatric pain or mental health concerns change throughout the year?
If you are a parent or individual experiencing chronic pain, chronic illness, anxiety, or depression, you may have observed changes in symptoms that seem to be associated with the seasons. But is that really true, does that happen to others, and what do you do with that information?
Some groups of researchers have investigated seasonal trends in youth, and pulling it all together, we may be able to gain some meaningful insights.
What does the research say?
First up, a group of researchers from a Midwestern children’s hospital (Mano et al., 2017) investigated the rates of calls from families of pediatric pain patients to their specialty pain clinic during the course of one year. They found that they were two times the amount of calls in the winter than in the summer. Similarly, the odds of a call involving headache pain were twice as likely in the winter as in the summer. These results seem to indicate patterns of children experiencing worse pain, especially worse headache pain, in the winter season.
In another study, a group of researchers (Pollard et al., 2018) asked parents of children with abdominal pain and functional gastrointestinal disorders to complete questionnaires in both the spring and summer months so that they could compare the two seasons. They found that a majority of the participants reported improvements in abdominal symptoms during the summer compared to the spring. Those that improved in abdominal symptoms also improved in anxiety symptoms during these months. Stress and sleep seemed to improve for everyone, whether or not their abdominal and anxiety symptoms improved. Otherwise, there were no seasonal changes in physical activity, parental responses, or dietary consumption. These results seem to suggest that improvements of abdominal pain and anxiety seem to go hand in hand in the summer months.
What about mental health more broadly? Another group of researchers followed trends in psychiatric consultations in an emergency department over the course between 2015-2019 (Marshall et al., 2021). They found that during this time period, each year saw an increase in the number of consultations. Throughout the years, they also observed seasonal trends. The highest volumes of mental health consultations were in January, April, May, October, and November. The most frequent concerns for consultations included depressive disorders and trauma-related or stressors-related disorders. So in this study, it seems that certain months of the winter, spring, and fall had higher rates of mental health concerns in the emergency room. What’s interesting to note is that these are similar months that were found to have peak emergency room visits for headaches as well (Rossi et al., 2018).
Conclusions:
So… which season is the worst? Though this is certainly not an exhaustive review, it seems that results are pointing to that summer seems to be the best. In the studies cited above, children and teens seemed to report less indicators of pain and mental health concerns in the summer season.
We might infer a few possible reasons why this might be, such as school, routines, and environmental factors. But what can you do with this information?
Practical To-Dos:
Enjoy the summer! We’re headed into warmer weather and routine changes. Embrace it!
Here are a few things to consider to make the most of the summer season:
Plan a few fun things to do, but keep the schedule less packed
After some extra rest and relaxation at the beginning of summer, find your way to a steady routine to keep a consistent sleep schedule and keep up with physical and social activity.
Some of us tend to get more isolated in the summer, so seek out opportunities for connecting with friends and family, or meeting new people.
Stay hydrated and wear sunscreen!
But be mindful- the results we reviewed were in large groups, and that may not be the case for your unique self or child. Not everyone follows the same patterns, and that’s ok. Please don’t hesitate to reach out for support or help.
In fact, the summer months can be a great time to bolster up on psychology support - when we’re feeling a bit better, we can make better use of skills and prepare for when it’s more difficult. We also have more flexible schedules, and it can be easier to fit in some sessions or activities than when the school year resumes. It can be more difficult and more stressful if we wait to reach out when we’re feeling at our worst.
No matter the time of year, pediatric psychology focused on pain management and mental health can help with addressing urgent concerns and preparing for long-term results.
If you are interested in a free consultation call for services for yourself or your child, click the Get Started at the top right of the screen.
References:
Mano, K. E. J., Gibler, R. C., Rusy, L. M., Ladwig, R. J., Madormo, C. O., & Hainsworth, K. R. (2017). Seasonal variation in pediatric chronic pain clinic phone triage call volume. Pain Management Nursing, 18(5), 288-294.
Marshall, R., Ribbers, A., Sheridan, D., & Johnson, K. P. (2021). Mental health diagnoses and seasonal trends at a pediatric emergency department and hospital, 2015–2019. Hospital Pediatrics, 11(3), 199-206.
Pollard, K. L., Campbell, C., Squires, M., Palsson, O., & van Tilburg, M. A. (2018). Seasonal association of pediatric functional abdominal pain disorders and anxiety. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 67(1), 18-22.
Rossi, R., Versace, A., Lauria, B., Grasso, G., Castagno, E., Ricceri, F., ... & Urbino, A. F. (2018). Headache in the pediatric emergency department: A 5-year retrospective study. Cephalalgia, 38(11), 1765-1772.