• "Belly girl" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: Robert McDon. (Robert McDonald) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  

Description

• Somatic stomach pain comes from the parietal peritoneum, the lining of the abdominal cavity which covers most of the intra-abdominal organs, including the stomach. The pain is nociceptive in nature, meaning it arises from the stimulation of pain receptors for hear, cold, vibration, stretching, inflammation and other chemical changes in the cells.
  
  

Characteristics

• Somatis stomach pain is typically sharp, intense, discrete and localized. The pain can also be reproduced by touching the area or engaging the area in movement.
  
  

Causes

• Somatic stomach pain arises from painful stimulation of the parietal peritoneum from ischemia, inflammation, or stretching of the parietal peritoneum itself. Coughing. stretching or any other movement involving the abdomen can cause this pain.
  
  

Treatment

• Paracetamol, opioids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are used, often in conjunction with each other, to treat somatic stomach pain. Paracetamols are pain killers but have a minimal peripheral anti-inflammatory effect. Opioids, whether strong or weak, are also used for pain, but are rarely taken alone. Lastly, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, also called NSAIDs, are used for anti-inflammatory purposes, as the name suggests.
  
  

Expert Insight

• Somatic stomach pain can be life threatening, particularly if it is associated with a life threatening medical condition such as a reputured abdominal aortic aneurysm, perforated viscus, ruptured ectopic pregnancy, intestinal obstruction or appendicitis.