[A comparative study of the effects of drug therapy and bladder training therapy]

Treatment of enuresis was studied in 168 patients. The patients were divided into two groups, the drug therapy group which consisted of 88 patients who were treated with drugs only, and the bladder training therapy group which consisted of 80 patients who were treated mainly with bladder training supplemented with drug therapy. In the drug therapy group imipramine was the first choice and was used at bed time. The dose of imipramine was initially 1 mg/kg and was gradually decreased if it worked well, and changed to other drugs if it did not work well. In the bladder training therapy group, bladder training was performed in all patients for 3 months, and 22 patients who cured further bladder training was continued, whereas the rest of the patients (58 patients) drug therapy was started in addition to bladder training. After 3 months, drug therapy was effective for 54 patients (61%) including 10 patients (11%) who were cured, and bladder training therapy plus drug therapy was effective for 55 patients (69%) including 22 patients (28%) who were cured. The number of cured patients in the bladder training therapy group was significantly larger than that of the drug therapy group (p less than 0.01). After 6 months, drug therapy was effective for 56 patients (64%) including 16 patients (18%) who were cured, and bladder training therapy plus drug therapy was effective for 66 patients (83%) including 30 patients (38%) who were cured. The number of effective and cured patients in the bladder training therapy group was significantly larger than that in the drug therapy group (p less than 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)