‘Growing pains’: researchers question if diagnosis is at all useful

Co-author of new analysis finds no clear consensus on definition, says term is a catch-all for we don't really know what's wrong'

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Most people are no strangers to growing pains. The phrase is widely used in common parlance and by health professionals to describe muscle or joint pain in children and teens.

But new analysis suggests there is no clear medical definition of the condition nor its causes. In a review of 145 studies globally, Australian researchers found no scientific consensus on what growing pains really are and how they should be diagnosed.

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