DO CHILDREN WITH PRIMARY NOCTURNAL ENURESIS HAVE CLINICALLY SIGNIFICANT BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS

Objective: To determine if primary nocturnal enuresis (PNE) is accompa nied by significant behavioral comorbidity. Design: A survey design us ing a standardized behavioral rating scale. Setting: Behavioral pediat ric clinics in the Midwest. Participants: Subjects with PNE (n = 92) w ere selected from 122 consecutive referrals for enuresis. Criteria inc luded age 5 years or older, PNE status, and wetting frequency of at le ast once per week. The clinical sample without PNE (n = 92) was random ly selected from 429 consecutive referrals to the same pediatric clini cs, stratified for age and sex. The nonclinical sample (n = 92) was ra ndomly selected by strata from the standardization sample (N = 614) of the behavioral checklist used in the study. Main Outcome Measure: The Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI), a standardized parent report scale, was used to measure the degree of behavioral comorbidity. The E CBI yields 2 scores, Problem Intensity and Problem Number. Results: Re sults from 2 separate 3 (group) X 2 (sex) analyses of variance indicat ed a significant main effect for group on Problem Intensity and Proble m Number (P < .001). For Problem Intensity, post hoc comparisons indic ated the mean of the PNE sample was significantly higher than the mean of the nonclinical sample (P < .05), but the mean scores of the clini cal sample were significantly higher than those of both the PNE and no nclinical samples (P < .O5). For Problem Number, post hoc comparisons revealed the means of the PNE and nonclinical samples did not differ f rom each other (P > .05) but were lower than the mean of the clinical sample (P < .05). Conclusion: Primary nocturnal enuresis does not pres ent with significant behavioral comorbidity in most cases. The results suggest that, with the exception of an extraordinary clinical present ation, pediatricians should treat PNE as a common biobehavioral proble m without a psychiatric component.