Mentalization and emotion regulation abilities in parents of children with nocturnal enuresis and its relationship with perceived caregiver burden

OBJECTIVE: Various psychological factors play a role in the development of nocturnal enuresis (NE) which causes significant distress both on children and their parents. However, current studies cannot attribute a role to the psychiatric conditions that cause or result from NE. This study aims to reveal some psychiatric parameters related to the parents of patients with NE which may play a role in the etiopathogenesis of NE. METHODS: Seventy-nine parents of primary 53 NE children and 78 parents of 44 healthy children were enrolled to the study. Parents of children with daytime voiding symptoms, additional comorbidity, or secondary enuresis were excluded from the study. Age- and sex-matched parents of healthy children with the absence of voiding symptoms were included as the control group. Parental Reflective Functioning (RF) Questionnaire, Interpersonal Emotion Regulation (ER) Questionnaire, and Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale were recorded to measure psychiatric conditions. RESULTS: Parents of children with NE showed significantly poorer RF and ER abilities compared to the control group. Moreover, the perceived caregiver burden was also significantly higher in parents of NE patients. Correlation analyses also showed that RF and ER are negatively correlated with caregiver burden. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that the parents of primary NE patients may have difficulty mentalizing and ER in interpersonal relationships. These difficulties may be a cause or a consequence of the NE. In addition, our findings showed that parents of NE patients perceive more caregiving burden. Therefore, it may be advisable for parents of NE patients to seek psychological counseling.