Caffeine restriction can improve, reduce severity of bed-wetting

Caffeine restriction can help improve and reduce the severity of primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (PMNE), according to a study recently published in BMJ Paediatrics Open.

Sadra Rezakhaniha, from the Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch Faculty of Basic Sciences in Tehran, Iran, and colleagues investigated the effect of caffeine restriction on the improvement and severity of PMNE in a randomized clinical trial involving 534 children aged 6 to 15 years. Caffeine consumption was <30 mg/day in the intervention group and 80 to 110 mg/day in the control group.

Before caffeine restriction, the mean number of bed-wettings was 3.5 and 3.4 times/week in the intervention and control groups, respectively. The researchers found that at one month after the intervention, the mean number of bed-wettings was 2.3 and 3.2 times/week in the intervention and control groups, respectively. In the intervention group, caffeine restriction significantly reduced the severity of enuresis. Improvement (dry at night) occurred in 20.2 and 6.7% of children in the caffeine restriction and control groups, respectively, with a relative risk of 0.615. Caffeine restriction significantly reduced enuresis, with a number-needed-to-treat of 7.417.

"Caffeine restriction can help reduce PMNE or its severity," the authors write. "Constructive limitation of caffeine is suggested as one of the first-line treatments in the management of PMNE."