Children with encopresis: a study of treatment outcome.
A pediatric treatment program for encopresis was established in a large medical center. This consisted of counseling and education, initial bowel catharsis, a supportive maintenance program to potentiate optimum evacuation, retraining, and careful monitoring and follow-up. A group of 127 children received care for this problem. At the end of one year, outcome data were obtained on 110 patients. Of these, 51% had not had "accidents" for more than six months. Another 27% showed marked improvement and were having only rare episodes of incontinence. 14% of these children showed some improvement, but continued to have incontinence, while 8% showed no improvement whatsoever during the treatment year. These four outcome groups were compared with respect to a large number of demographic, developmental, psychosocial, and clinical variables.
D002400:Cathartics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D003376:Counseling; D004688:Encopresis / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010349:Patient Compliance; D014039:Toilet Training
D002400:Cathartics