i have stomach pain what should i do

Nonspecific stomach pain in the packet isn't something one source can safely diagnose or manage; the key message across entries is that severe, sudden, or persistent pain, or pain with reduced appetite/eating, should prompt prompt in-person medical evaluation rather than self-management, since causes range from benign (stress-related IBS) to urgent (acute abdomen, pregnancy-related causes) to disease-specific (pancreatic disease, endometriosis, hereditary angioedema).

When stomach pain needs urgent evaluation

• Stomach pain that is severe, sudden in onset, continuous, and not improved by simple measures like paracetamol warrants emergency department evaluation, as seen in a case of acute abdominal pain rated 10/10 that did not respond to paracetamol or rest.

Possible causes worth considering

• Chronic or recurrent abdominal pain with bloating that is triggered by stress has been described as a pattern consistent with irritable bowel syndrome.
• Abdominal pain with bowel symptoms such as constipation, diarrhea, and pain radiating from the rectum has been reported in endometriosis.
• Abdominal pain with vomiting, diarrhea, and an inability to find a comfortable position has been described as a feature of hereditary angioedema attacks.
• In a pregnant woman, abdominal pain should prompt an early pregnancy test, and if diagnosis and symptom control fail after 6 to 8 hours, a multidisciplinary evaluation should be pursued, with MRI considered for safe cross-sectional imaging.

Analgesic management in a specific chronic pancreatic condition

• In fibrocalculous pancreatic diabetes, abdominal pain is managed with non-opioid or opioid analgesics and anti-spasmodic agents, with sphincterotomy or drainage procedures such as a Puestow procedure reserved for intractable pain despite adequate medical treatment.

Sources

• Non Obstetric Causes and Presentation of Acute Abdomen among the Pregnant Women — Journal of Family & Reproductive Health
• Developing a measure to assess the quality of care transitions for older people — BMC Health Services Research
• Atypical diabetes subtypes in Black African populations — Diabetologia
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Me: A Sworn Rivalry — JNMA: Journal of the Nepal Medical Association
• Nutcracker Phenomenon: A Rare Incidental Finding — Cureus
• The patient experience of hereditary angioedema: findings from a racially diverse sample of adult patients — Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases
• A Multiassessment and Multiprofessional Agents Approach for Medical Chatbot Risk Estimation: Development and Evaluation Study — JMIR Medical Informatics
• The endometriosis daily diary: qualitative research to explore the patient experience of endometriosis and inform the development of a patient-reported outcome (PRO) for endometriosis-related pain — Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes

Decision support for clinicians, not medical advice. Answers are grounded in the published literature and every claim cites its source in the interactive view.