Pubertal Status Predicts Back Pain, Overtiredness, and Dizziness in American and Dutch Adolescents

OBJECTIVE: Functional somatic symptoms, symptoms for which no organic pathologic basis can be found, are more prevalent in girls than in boys, and this difference tends to increase during adolescence. This might be explained, at least in part, by pubertal development. We hypothesized that pubertal maturation predicts the development of most functional somatic symptoms and that this especially is true for girls. METHOD: We used 2 longitudinal population-based studies to examine our hypotheses: the Longitudinal Study of Pain in Adolescents in Seattle (n = 1996 [49.7% girls]) and the Dutch Tracki... Mehr ...