ADD/ADHD and Bedwetting

Over the years at the Enuresis Treatment Center, we have spoken with thousands of people who express their concern over their child’s symptoms of ADD or ADHD. We have found there to be a direct correlation between their poor quality sleep and how they are able to function during the day. Often we see signs of ADD or ADHD as a result of this compromise. Below is some information to support our findings.

Bedwetting Linked With Intellectual Decline

By Jill Stein

HONG KONG (Reuters Health) - Children who regularly wet the bed at night score worse on multiple measures of cognitive performance than do non-bedwetting children, researchers reported here at the International Children's Continence Society (ICCS) meeting.

Dr. Chung Kwong Yeung, chairman of pediatric surgery and pediatric urology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and colleagues tracked changes in cognitive function in 95 bedwetting children. (Cognitive function refers abilities such as intelligence, short-term memory and attention focus.

The researchers also tested 46 children of the same age without the condition, which is also referred to as nocturnal enuresis. All of the children were evaluated over a 2-year period using several widely accepted cognitive tests.

"Prior research had shown that bedwetting children have inferior sleep quality, including sleep fragmentation and sleep deprivation, but paradoxically have more difficulty in completely awakening," Yeung, who is also ICCS President, pointed out. "Since sleep deprivation may have a negative impact on daytime cognitive functioning, it is important to examine whether there is an underlying connection between nocturnal enuresis and cognitive performance."

No studies have systematically compared cognition in bed-wetting and non-bed-wetting children or assessed cognitive changes after treatment for bedwetting, he added.

Patients in the enuretic group had an average of five bedwetting episodes per week. These children also had poorer scores than the comparison group on standardized tests of intelligence, focused attention, and short-term memory. The chronic bedwetters also had worse retention ability and long-term memory and a lower learning speed and reaction.

"The findings are important because treatment of bedwetting should help patients achieve more than getting over the stigma of being wet," Dr. Stuart Bauer, professor of urology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, told Reuters Health. "We now know that treatment can improve cognition and can therefore be expected to improve their school performance, self-image, and their interactions with peers and family members."

Attention Deficit Disorder and Bedwetting

By Lyle D. Danuloff, Ph.D.
Reviewed by: Judith Kovach. Ph. D.

Perhaps your child has been misdiagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, (ADD/ADHD) when the underlying problem is actually an oxygen-deprived, deep-sleep disorder.

Bed wetting is caused by an inherited deep-sleep disorder, causing the bed wetter to spend most of the night in Stage 4 sleep, which is an oxygen-deprived sleep. Thus, when a person is deprived of oxygen for extended periods of time at night--affecting the brain, bloodstream, muscles and all other organs--the resulting symptoms can be identical to those of ADD/ADHD, (the inability to concentrate or pay attention, forgetfulness, failure to complete tasks, distractibility, etc.). To end bed wetting, you must remove the cause...a serious sleep disorder. We have discovered that, in most cases, once the sleep disorder is corrected and the bed wetting stops, the symptoms associated with ADD/ADHD also disappear. In some cases where there is a legitimate ADD/ADHD disability, the symptoms improve enough that medications for ADD/ADHD can most likely be discontinued. (Click for complete article)

Topic	Information
Genetic Link	Bedwetting and ADD seem to be common partners; both have genetic components. The role of genetics in the development of ADHD has only recently been discovered. However, ADHD is now among the most recognized genetics-based disorders in psychiatry. Between 10 and 35 percent of children with ADHD have a very close relative with ADHD, and nearly one half of parents who had ADHD as a child also has a child with the disorder. Studies done in families of children with ADHD show those relatives of affected children are at high risk themselves for having ADHD and other psychiatric disorders, as well as learning disabilities. (Source: ADHD.com)
UC Irvine College of Medicine	3 to 5 % of all children - 500,000 children in the United States - have some degree of ADHD and also suffer from bedwetting
Bedwetting and ADHD	At age six, they found that children with ADHD were 2.7 times more likely to have bedwetting and 4.5 times more likely to have daytime wetting ( adhdguide.com)
ADHD does not cause bedwetting	ADHD does not cause bedwetting and it is not listed as a symptom of ADHD (adhdcentral.com)
Southern Medical Journal	Children with ADHD had a 2.7 times higher incidence of bedwetting and a 4.5 times higher incidence of daytime wetting.
Increased risk for learning disability	Enuresis was associated with increased risk for learning disability, impaired intellectual function, and impaired school achievement. (Pediatric Psychopharmacology Unit (ACC 725), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114, USA.?
Diagnosis of ADD/ADHD	A history of bedwetting is a very strong clue to the diagnosis of ADD/ADHD. (Dr. Monroe Gross, M.D., ADD Medical Treatment Center)
One in fifty teenagers wet	A study that was published in Urology Journal International has stated that one in fifty teenager’s still wet the bed. Source: Medical News Today, 05/19/2006

Bedwetting, Bowel Problems Seen In Children With Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder

Children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may also tend to struggle with bedwetting and other bowel and urinary tract problems, a UC Irvine College of Medicine study has found. The study, believed to be the first to investigate urinary and bowel problems in children with ADHD, will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Boston. The researchers also introduced a biofeedback technique that appears to be successful at reversing some of these problems in children.

Dr. Barry Duel, assistant professor of urology and a specialist in childhood urological diseases at UCI Medical Center's University Children's Hospital, and his colleagues found that children with ADHD scored three times higher than non-ADHD children on a questionnaire that surveyed the delicate issues of pre-adolescent bedwetting, improper bowel control and other problems.

About 3 to 5 percent of all children in the United States have some degree of ADHD. (Click here for complete study.)

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children with Nocturnal Enuresis

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Although the relationship between enuresis and psychopathology has been studied intensively, little is known about the prevalence of specific psychiatric disorders. We investigate the prevalence of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children with nocturnal enuresis and correlate these data with clinical subtypes of enuresis/incontinence. (click here for complete study)