New Clues into Bedwetting

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- There may be a hormonal reason as to why some children who wet their beds do not respond to a common treatment for the condition.

Danish researchers found more sodium and urea in the urine of some bedwetters, which may be due to an imbalance of prostaglandin -- a hormone-like substance. This could help explain why about 30 percent of children who wet their beds do not get better when they take desmopressin (DDAVP, Stimate, Minirin) -- a drug that successfully treats the other 70 percent. It could also lead to a treatment that works for them.

Investigators looked at 46 bedwetting (enuretic) children between ages 7 and 14 who did not respond to desmopressin. The children were divided into a polyuric group (average output on wet nights is more than 130 percent of expected bladder capacity) and nonpolyuric (average output is less than 130 percent of expected capacity).

Results show polyuric children excreted twice as much urine during the night than the nonpolyuric children and those without the condition at all. The polyuric children's urine also contained more sodium, urea, and prostaglandin.

Researchers say the children who wet the bed did not excrete more water but instead excreted more sodium and urea. This expands the volume of urine in the bladder and leads to wetting the bed.

The researchers are now conducting a study that treats children who do not respond to desmopressin with indomethacin (Indocin) -- a prostaglandin inhibitor. The research should be done within one year.

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SOURCE: American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology, 2006;291:F1232-F1240