Parental attitudes and perceptions towards bed-wetting were different from their children's. The children's age, enuresis severity and their mothers' educational level were potential risk factors that affected well-being. Health practitioners need to facilitate communication between enuretic children and their parents in addition to monitoring their psychological well-being.
Primary nocturnal enuresis (PNE) is a common childhood disorder that adversely affects a child's mental well-being and social life. Our clinical experience showed parents and their child often have significantly different perspective of enuresis, and these differences can affect family dynamics, treatment approaches, and treatment success. Parents' perception of PNE also influences the likelihood of seeking medical treatment, and we found parents of children with enuresis have markedly different beliefs regarding bedwetting than those of physicians. Because achieving remission for PNE requires parents and their child to actively participate in treatment, assessing their expectancy of success and their beliefs will allow clinicians to adjust treatment goals as necessary. When treating PNE, guidelines consistently recommend incorporating bed alarms as part of the therapy. However, through interviewing parents and treating their children, we found parents preferred medications or other behavioral strategies, such as limiting water intake, because of their convenience. Many parents would complain bed alarms woke them up instead of their child, and they would soon give up on bed alarms. Part of assessing their beliefs includes assessing their confidence in their child being able to wake up to alarms and to persist with treatment. Understanding how they manage and approach setbacks will also determine the treatment modality suited for their child. In this review paper, we detailed our experiences interviewing parents and treating their child with NE with urodynamics and medications at the Changhua Christian Hospital in Taiwan.
PurposeThe aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of desmopressin and imipramine in the treatment of severe primary nocturnal enuresis (NE) in Taiwan.Patients and methodsThis study was a retrospective chart review study conducted on children with primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (PMNE) or non-monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (PNMNE), referred to and treated by senior physicians in a Changhua medical center in Taiwan. After being screened, these children were treated with either desmopressin (n = 125) or imipramine (n = 71). All participants were treated for at least 3 months and followed afterward for at least 3 more months. The response and relapse rates were measured. Side effects were monitored. Age, gender, and severity of NE were recorded.ResultsAfter 3 months of treatment, 97 children treated with desmopressin were responsive (77.6%) while 58 children treated with imipramine were responsive (81.7%). Sixty-one children treated with desmopressin (48.8%) and 26 treated with imipramine (36.6%) relapsed during the 3-month post-treatment monitoring. The differences in responsive and relapse rates were not statistically significant. Four children treated with imipramine (5.6%) reported side effects while none was reported for children treated with desmopressin (P < 0.05). Age, gender, and the presence or absence of daytime enuresis did not influence the response rate to either drug (P < 0.05).ConclusionCurrently, desmopressin is preferred over imipramine for treating NE due to the latter’s side effects. Our results demonstrated similar response rates for both drugs, with imipramine demonstrating minimal side effects. While health practitioners should pay attention to its side effects, concerns regarding imipramine toxicity in NE treatment are often overblown. Since imipramine is much cheaper than desmopressin, using imipramine to manage NE can allow health practitioners, especially in Taiwan, to treat the greatest number of children with NE.
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