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Medications for Bed-wetting

Reviewed By: Brunilda Nazario,

SOURCES: Steven Parker, MDDirector, Behavioral/Development Pediatrics, Boston Medical CenterWebMD Blog, Healthy ChildrenWebMD Message Board Expert

© 2008 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Narrator:

Are there medications for bedwetting?

Steven Parker, MD:

Currently, people generally use what's called DDAVP, which is the anti-diuretic hormone, which is shown to be effective in a couple of sniffs or a pill these days. The body makes less urine, and it seems to help many kids so that they don't pee. There are other medications, tri-cyclic antidepressants which can do the same thing. I find them useful for kids who need to be dry for a specific reason. They are going off to camp, they are going on sleepovers. Um, and they just want to be dry. And if they take the medication they will be dry. The problem with medications, even if they work, is that once you stop them, you're back where you started and bedwetting comes back, so it's not a cure. But they are very useful for kids who want to do what other kids do, and be dry and not be humiliated and so on. Especially in those cases, I think medications have a real place.

Narrator:

So it wouldn't work that you could keep your child on medication for a year, and by then, they will mature enough to stop bedwetting?

Steven Parker, MD:

That could happen. 15 percent chance it would get better on its own, so, and some parents do that. I tend not to, because again I see the bedwetting as benign and um, although the medications are very safe, of course you always worry about side effects, and since it's not a cure, it won't get better on its own any faster with the medications, I tend to use medications just when I need them, but not chronically.

Narrator:

What are the side effects?

Steven Parker, MD:

Well, generally there are no side effects. There are some case reports, especially if you use too much of the anti-diuretic hormone, your body may retain too much water. And kids have gotten into trouble for that reason. And with the tri-cyclic antidepressants, the worry is much more that if someone were to overdose on those pills, then they're pretty nasty, but taking the one small pill in a child is actually quite safe. But it's having those pills around with young kids that people worry about.

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