Combination therapy for nocturnal enuresis

Nocturnal enuresis (NE) is a multifactorial condition of childhood affecting both children and their parents. NE may result from a vasopressin deficiency, bladder instability or lack of arousal from sleep to bladder sensations. The development of the three-systems model offers increased understanding of the multifactorial aetiology of NE and may aid the development of a tailored treatment regimen for the individual child. For decades, treatment of NE has focused on pharmacological, behavioural and combination therapies, and many studies provide supporting evidence for each of these treatment approaches. However, many of these studies were performed on unselected patient populations. without assessment of the cause of the patients' enuresis, and therefore both the methodologies and results of these studies are questionable. This paper reviews the efficacy of combined treatment interventions and assesses when such interventions may be of most benefit to the patient.