The cause of ?growing pains? has never been identified but physicians have always been comfortable in reassuring mothers that the condition is harmless. It occurred to me one day while listening to a young mother describe her daughter?s severe leg pain in the middle of the night that what the child had experienced was very much like an adult attack of sciatica, and since this was clearly one of the most common manifestations of TMS, ?growing pains? might very well represent TMS in children.
Little wonder that no one has been able to explain the nature of ?growing pains? since TMS is a condition that usually leaves no physical evidence of its presence. There is a temporary constriction of blood vessels, bringing on the symptoms, and then all returns to normal.
The emotional stimulus for the attack in children is no different from that in adults?anxiety. One might say that the attack in a child is a paranightmare. It is a substitute for a nightmare, a command decision by the mind to produce a physical reaction rather than have the individual experience a painful emotion, which is what happens in adults as well.
At the other end of the spectrum, I have seen the syndrome in men and women in their eighties. There appears to be no age limit, and why would there be? As long as one can generate emotions one is susceptible to the disorder.The Manifestations of TMS What are the ages when it is most common, and can we learn anything from those statistics? In a follow up survey carried out in 1982, 177 patients were interviewed as to their then current status following treatment for TMS. (See ?Follow Up Surveys? for results of the survey.) We learned that 77 percent of the patients fell between the ages of thirty and sixty, 9 percent were in their twenties, and there were only four teenagers (2 percent). At the other end of the spectrum, only 7 percent were in their sixties and 4 percent in their seventies.
