Childhood enuresis. I. Sleep patterns and psychopathology
E. J. Mikkelsen, J. L. Rapoport, L. Nee, C. Gruenau, W. Mendelson and J. C. Gillin
Forty severely enuretic boys (mean age, 10.8 years) were selected; 20 had
associated psychiatric disturbance and 20 had enuresis as an isolated
symptom. Psychiatrically disturbed enuretics had both slightly higher
scores on a neurological examination for "soft signs" and more "stressful"
background events. Enuretic events were not associated with a particular
sleep stage; disturbed and nondisturbed enuretics did not differ from each
other with respect to the distribution of enuretic events by sleep stage.
The results do not support the concepts of enuresis as an arousal disorder
or of there being different sleep profiles of enuresis in relation to
behavioral pathology.
