I sometimes get questions from families or other health care providers asking about current research in the area of bedwetting and the use of bedwetting alarms. One of the most recent thorough studies was published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, March 2007. David Cutting, Julie Pallant and Felicity Cutting, from the Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia, conducted the research on 505 children over a two year period of time. They used Malem wearable alarms, beginning with the auditory alarm and substituting it with the Malem Ultimate if no progress was observed.
Results were impressive. A total of 79% of the patients achieved dryness, defined as 14 consecutive nights of dryness, in an average of 10.4 weeks. A further 13% achieved a reduction of wet nights. For those who had not achieved dryness by 16 weeks, they were given the option to continue. 19% of the patients did take longer than 16 weeks to get to dryness. (This is an important finding. Most studies are conducted for 3-4 months with no follow-up beyond this time) Boys took longer to achieve initial dryness (boys 14.8 weeks, girls 10.9 weeks) but there was no difference in the relapse rates at 6 and 24 months.
The other impressive area in this study was their level of follow-up. They contacted 100% of the participants at 6 months and 99.2% at 2 years. Relapse was defined as 2 wet nights within 2 weeks. 27% reported some relapse at 6 months, 35% at 2 years. This relapse rate is so much lower than that reported after trials of medication, where the relapse rate approaches 90%.
This research continues to prove that bedwetting alarms are an effective cure for bedwetting and the relapse rate is lower than any other method we have.