• Ahna L Hoff, Tonya M Palermo, Mark Schluchter, Kathy Zebracki, and Dennis Drotar.
• Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Case Western Reserve University, USA. pai@email.chop.edu
• J Pediatr Psychol. 2006 Nov 1; 31 (10): 1046-56.

ObjectiveTo examine the longitudinal relationship between depressive symptoms at study entry (T1) on pain intensity (PI) and functional disability over a 1-year period among children with either sickle cell disease (SCD) or juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).Methods119 children, ages 8-17 years, completed measures of depression at T1 as well as pain and functional disability at T1, 6-month (T2), and 12-month (T3) follow-ups. Caregivers also rated their child's pain and disability at each time point. General linear mixed modeling was employed to examine longitudinal relationships between study variables.ResultsFor children with JIA, T1 pain significantly moderated the effects of T1-depressive symptoms on T2 and T3 pain where T1-depressive symptoms predicted future child-reported pain only when T1 pain was relatively mild. Similarly, T1-depressive symptoms predicted future child-reported disability only when initial reports of disability were relatively low. Only family income significantly predicted T2 and T3 pain in children with SCD.ConclusionsStudy findings suggest that T1-depressive symptoms play a role in the longitudinal course of pain symptoms in children with JIA but not in children with SCD.

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