Adolescent chronic pain and functional symptoms

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Target exams

Red flags

• Suicidal ideation, plan or intent, or recent self-harm alongside chronic pain
• New or progressive neurological deficit suggesting organic disease
• Weight loss, failure to grow, or systemic features (fever, night sweats) suggesting malignancy or inflammatory disease
• Nocturnal pain waking the adolescent from sleep, or pain consistently unchanged by position
• Pattern of escalating opioid use for chronic primary pain
• Complete and prolonged school absence with worsening function and family conflict
• Disclosed or suspected abuse, neglect or intimate partner violence driving the presentation

Life stages

Care settings

Clinical exam formats

Board mappings

• General and Adolescent Paediatrics
• Paediatric pain and symptom management
• Current 2026 PREP curriculum — Learning Objective 1.2.1: Communicate with a child or young person in a way which is appropriate to the position of that child within their own culture
• Current 2026 PREP curriculum — Learning Objective 1.2.2: Communicate with parents or carers
• Renewed curriculum for first-year trainees from 2027 — Learning goal 5: Clinical assessment – essential general paediatrics
• Renewed curriculum for first-year trainees from 2027 — Learning goal 6: Clinical management – essential general paediatrics
• Renewed curriculum for first-year trainees from 2027 — Learning goal 12: Communication with patients, families, and health professionals
• Renewed curriculum for first-year trainees from 2027 — Learning goal 15: Essential general paediatrics
• Clinical Applications
• Pain management and psychosomatic medicine
• Long Cases
• Short Cases
• Communication stations
• 1. Healthy child: promoting health and preventing disease
• 4. Professional skills and knowledge: Patient management
• 8. Child safeguarding / mental health
• 11. Adolescent health
• General Paediatrics: Provides biopsychosocial, function-first assessment and interdisciplinary management of adolescents with chronic pain and functional symptoms, coordinating physiotherapy, psychology, mental-health and school reintegration, avoiding over-investigation and opioid escalation
• Foundation of Practice (FOP)
• Applied Knowledge in Practice (AKP)
• Adolescent health, chronic pain, somatic/functional presentations and mental health
• History
• Communication
• Clinical
• Child development
• General Pediatrics Content Outline — Domain 1: Preventive Pediatrics/Well-Child Care
• General Pediatrics Content Outline — Domain 9: Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Disorders
• General Pediatrics Content Outline — Domain 16: Mental and Behavioral Health
• General Pediatrics EPA 3: Providing well-child and adolescent care including preventive care and anticipatory guidance
• General Pediatrics EPA 11: Promoting equitable care at the level of each individual patient and the population
• Patient Care 1: History and Physical Examination
• Patient Care 5: Patient Management
• Interpersonal and Communication Skills 1: Patient- and Family-Centered Communication
• Systems-Based Practice 3: System Navigation for Patient Centered Care – Coordination of Care
• Professionalism 1: Professional Behavior and Ethical Principles
• Professionalism 2: Accountability and Conscientiousness
• Communicator
• Collaborator
• Health Advocate
• Professional
• Pediatrics: Foundations EPA — Assessing and providing care for adolescents
• Pediatrics: Core EPA — Providing preventive care and anticipatory guidance