Investigated relation of negative life events (NLE) to initial symptom severity and symptom resolution at 3 months in 2 patient groups: (a) recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) without identifiable organic etiology, (b) abdominal pain with organic diagnosis. Symptoms assessed were abdominal pain, somatization symptoms, anxiety, depression. Number of NLE was positively correlated with anxiety and depression in both groups at clinic visit. NLE predicted resolution of abdominal pain for RAP patients only; RAP patients with more NLE prior to or following the clinic visit were more likely to maintain their abdominal pain. More NLE following clinic visit was associated with maintenance of anxiety and somatization symptoms at follow-up in RAP patients. Results suggest a measure of NLE is not useful in differential diagnosis of patients with and without organic findings, but is useful in predicting outcome in patients without organic findings.