Bedwetting linked with intellectual decline

Bedwetting linked with intellectual decline
HONG KONG (Reuters Health) - Children who regularly wet thebed at night score worse on multiple measures of cognitiveperformance than do non-bedwetting children, researchersreported here at the International Children's ContinenceSociety (ICCS) meeting.
Dr. Chung Kwong Yeung, chairman of pediatric surgery andpediatric urology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, andcolleagues tracked changes in cognitive function in 95bedwetting children. (Cognitive function refers abilities suchas intelligence, short-term memory and attention focus.)
The researchers also tested 46 children of the same agewithout the condition, which is also referred to as nocturnalenuresis. All of the children were evaluated over a 2-yearperiod using several widely accepted cognitive tests.
"Prior research had shown that bedwetting children haveinferior sleep quality, including sleep fragmentation and sleepdeprivation, but paradoxically have more difficulty incompletely awakening," Yeung, who is also ICCS President,pointed out. "Since sleep deprivation may have a negativeimpact on daytime cognitive functioning, it is important toexamine whether there is an underlying connection betweennocturnal enuresis and cognitive performance."
No studies have systematically compared cognition inbed-wetting and non-bed-wetting children or assessed cognitivechanges after treatment for bedwetting, he added.
Patients in the enuretic group had an average of fivebedwetting episodes per week. These children also had poorerscores than the comparison group on standardized tests ofintelligence, focused attention, and short-term memory. Thechronic bedwetters also had worse retention ability andlong-term memory and a lower learning speed and reaction.
However, 6 months of treatment with desmopressin, a drugthat increases urine concentration and decreases urineproduction, plus bladder re-training significantly improved allmeasures of cognitive function. Sleep-awakening ability andbrainstem function, which has also been shown to be impaired inchildren with primary nocturnal enuresis, were also restored tonormal after treatment.
"The findings are important because treatment of bedwettingshould help patients achieve more than getting over the stigmaof being wet," Dr. Stuart Bauer, professor of urology atHarvard Medical School in Boston, told Reuters Health. "We nowknow that treatment can improve cognition and can therefore beexpected to improve their school performance, self-image, andtheir interactions with peers and family members."