Infantile Masturbation-Treated with Anti-Epileptic Drugs: Experience of a Tertiary Care Pediatric Hospital in Bangladesh

Abstract

Aim: This study was aimed to find out the mismanagement of infantile masturbation and the outcome of the cases who were treated with anti-epileptic drugs.
 Study Design: Retrospective.
 Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at outpatient department of Rehabilitation and Neurology unit of Dr. M R Khan Shishu Hospital and Institute of Child Health, Dhaka Bangladesh, between 2013-2022.
 Methods: Data were collected from records which included socio-demographic data and clinical features of masturbation in children. Data related to treatment was also collected and their outcome was observed.
 Results: Among 50 patients, majority (74%) had age of onset between 12-36 months of age. Mean age was 43±26 months, the range was between 4 months to 84 months. Female were predominant (60%). Most of the children came from urban area (86%) and belong to nuclear family (78%). They presented with stereotype movement of variable duration and there was no alteration of consciousness. Prone positioning was more frequent than prone to supine position (78% Vs 18%). There was no laboratory and EEG abnormalities among the cases. Thirty two percent patients were treated with anti-epileptic drugs from outside and among them 2 (12%) was given sodium valproate and rest 14 (88%) were treated with phenobarbitone. But there was no clinical improvement in these cases.
 Conclusion: Use of anti-epileptic drugs was not associated with any clinical improvement in children with infantile masturbation.

Gratification Phenomenon: Clinical Phenotype and Sex Hormones Profile

“…In agreement with our findings, Unal observed that family type and economic level were statistically unimportant when comparing patients and controls [14] , which agrees with our findings. Rahman et al [23] discovered that the majority of patients (46% and 50%, respectively) belonged to the medium and upper income groups in their study. However, Dhaher et al [24] discovered that masturbatory behaviour was more widespread in lower socioeconomic classes (68%).…”

“…Furthermore, Ajlouni et al [12] revealed that the typical number of incidents in their study was four per day, with a median length of 3.9 minutes. According to Rahaman et al [23] the majority of episodes (48%) lasted 3-5 minutes, subsequently followed by less than 3 minutes (28%) and happened 3-5 times per day (66%).…”

“…Masturbation was predominantly undertaken in the prone and lateral decubitus positions for children as well as for babies, according to Doust et al [13] . Furthermore, Rahman et al [23] showed that most of children (78%) performed the activity in the prone position, followed by the lying down supine posture (18%).…”

“…In terms of the treatment that began in our study, 15 patients (60%) received predominantly antiepileptic medicines. Rahman et al [23] showed that 32% of cases received therapy with anti-epileptic medicines such as phenobarbitone (88%) and sodium valproate (12%), with no significant difference in these instances. This is consistent with our findings about the poor effectiveness of pharmaceuticals in children with self-gratification (60% no response and 6.7% bad response).…”