Objective

Our aim was to examine and map the consequences of chronic pain in children and adolescents.

Method

A scoping review was carried out in the international databases (PubMed, SCOPUS, WOS and CINAHL, Cochrane Library) and gray literature. We included documents that addressed psychosocial aspects that influence chronic pain, published in English between 2010 and 2016. We excluded the documents that dealt with pharmacological treatments, chronic pain derived from surgical interventions or where there was no access to full text. 34 of the 716 documents reviewed were included.

Results

Studies show that pain is associated with high rates of functional disability, sleep disorders and spectrum depression-anxiety. Young people experience higher rates of victimization and stigmatization, contributing to social isolation, difficulty in meeting academic demands and less opportunity to consume illegal substances. With respect to the family, chronic pain has been associated with poorer family functioning and considerable investment of economic resources.

Conclusions

This Scoping Review shows that functional capacity, sleep, personal development, peer support and family functioning are interesting lines in published works. However, gaps in knowledge are detected in areas such as risk behaviours, the consequences that pain can cause in adulthood and gender inequalities.

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