CLINICAL ENURESIS PHENOTYPES IN FAMILIAL NOCTURNAL ENURESIS

The objective of the current study was to identify the associations be tween phenotype and genotype in children with nocturnal enuresis. Of t he total of 167 wetting children, aged 5-10 years, without neurologica l or structural forms of incontinence, 110 were nocturnal enuretics. T he examinations included a full psychiatric and psychological assessme nt, a paediatric and neurological examination, a family history with p edigree, ultrasonography, uroflowmetery, urinanalysis and bacteriology . Children with secondary nocturnal enuresis (n = 28) had a significan tly higher rate of behavioural disorders, life events and continuous p sychosocial stress than those with primary nocturnal enuresis (n = 82) . Of the latter group, children with primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (n = 50) had an especially low rate of behavioural problems, when in comparison to primary non-monosymptomatic nocturnal enuretics (n = 32). Formal genetics point to a high genetic predisposition to n octurnal enuresis in all subgroups. Linkage studies to markers on chro mosomes 8, 12 and 13 demonstrate both clinical, as well as genetic het erogeneity in nocturnal enuresis.