Thirty nocturnally enuretic children and their parents took part in this study which examined the effectiveness of dry-bed training (DBT) with and without the adjunct of a urine-alarm device. Parents administered all treatment, following initial instruction in small group settings and supported by regular group meetings with a professional therapist. Ten children were treated by DBT without an alarm. Results showed this method to be effective in significantly reducing bedwetting frequency but not in effecting complete arrest of bedwetting symptoms. Ultimately all 30 children were treated by DBT with an alarm and this method led to 29 children reaching the success criterion of 14 consecutive dry nights. The average time taken to the last wet night was 30 days. There were 10 relapses at a 3-month follow-up. These results were virtually the same as those from a previous study involving 60 subjects who were treated by DBT with an alarm, either under the direction of a professional therapist, or of the child's parents who had been previously trained in the procedure on an individual basis (Bollard and Nettelbeck, 1981). Instructing parents in a group to administer DBT with an alarm is therefore an economical large-scale method of treating nocturnal enuresis because of savings in therapist time and effort in administering the demanding procedure.
With permission from Excerpta Medica Inc.

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