Digestive Disease Myths Slideshow Pictures Appendicitis & Appendectomy Slideshow Pictures What's Causing Your Pelvic Pain Slideshow Pictures

Medical Author:

Jerry R. Balentine, DO, FACEP

Jerry R. Balentine, DO, FACEP

Dr. Balentine received his undergraduate degree from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. He attended medical school at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine graduating in1983. He completed his internship at St. Joseph's Hospital in Philadelphia and his Emergency Medicine residency at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in the Bronx, where he served as chief resident.

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Medical Editor:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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Abdominal Pain in Adults Causes

Many acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) diseases cause abdominal pain.

• Diseases people worry about most are appendicitis, gallbladder disease, duodenal and gastric ulcers, infections, and pregnancy-associated problems.
  
  
• Doctors also worry about the following conditions: ruptured blood vessels, heart attack, liver and pancreas inflammation, kidney stones, problems with the blood circulation to the intestine, diverticulitis, and other diseases.

Abdominal pain may not arise from the abdomen.

• Some heart attacks and pneumonias can cause abdominal pain.
  
  
• Diseases of the pelvis or groin can also cause a pateint's abdomen to hurt.
  
  
• Certain skin rashes, such as shingles, can feel like abdominal pain, even though the person has nothing wrong inside their body.
  
  
• Even some poisonings, such as a black widow spider bite, can cause severe abdominal pain.

From the above it is apparent that abdominal pain can have many causes, some linked directly to the abdomen and others caused by non-abdominal disease. Sometime the cause of abdominal pain is not found by the patient's health care practitioner during the initial evaluation. In some cases, no specific cause is determined, and the pain gets better in hours or days.