Basic bladder advice ‘waste of time’ in kids with nocturnal enuresis

Alarms, desmopressin are still the main approaches in enuresis in updated international guidance
Reuters Health

Enuresis alarms and desmopressin should remain the first treatment choices for nocturnal enuresis in children, according to updated advice from the International Children’s Continence Society.

Lead author Dr Tryggve Neveus, of Uppsala University, Sweden, says these remain first-line therapies, in the new guidelines addressing the management and treatment of nocturnal enuresis.

However, in children with monosymptomatic enuresis, there is no evidence to support basic bladder advice as a first-line therapy. This is a change from the previous document.

“This may be just a waste of time. If the child is old enough to be bothered by the enuresis, it should be actively treated with the alarm or desmopressin,” Dr Neveus says.