View report page

64
Conditioning Apparatus - "The Buzzer'
In 1965 the Corporation of Croydon bought its first enuresis machine,
and this was used successfully for those cases who did not respond quickly
enough to tablets. The Authority now lends out 35 of these conditioning
apparatus and of the 1,000 children in this survey 359 have used the "buzzer".
Although the buzzer was developed to work in one way, it actually works in
another. The idea was that the child would be conditioned to wake up and
empty his bladder in the night; but when children using the buzzer become
dry, they do not wake up and empty their bladders in the night; they sleep
through quite dry till morning. The electric machine works because it gives
complete security and confidence. The child knows that as long as it is
working he will never wake up in a wet bed again, as the bell rings when
only a drachm of urine has been voided. The buzzers are given now to older
children in preference to the tablets, and to younger children who do not respond
to the tablets. They cause a child to become dry much more rapidly
than the placebo, plus reassurance. They do, however, have a higher relapse
rate than those treated with the tablets.
Seven children who used the buzzer suffered from chemical burns. In
two cases this necessitated cessation of treatment; the others were able to
continue. The Department now possesses a transistorised buzzer for children
who react in this way.
Results of Treatment
A child is discharged as dry when it has reached the stage of having
only one wet bed per month, the mother is told to report again if this
"occasional accident" has not stopped within three or four months. If a
child has not become dry it is not discharged even after six months, but
treatment is continued until the child is dry or ceases to attend.
Five children have been discharged as not cured. These were all
children of 15 or 16 years, who had previously been treated and investigated,
who had used the buzzer, in some cases for 18 months. All improved
but none were completely dry.
The attendance rate is poor and many cease to attend after 2 or 3
visits; in those cases their records usually show considerable improvement.
The results are given as discharged dry; or discharged for nonattendance.