Preference for Enuresis Treatments:

Abstract

College students, randomly assigned to two information conditions, were given a case description of an enuretic boy and told to imagine themselves as his parent who has to choose from different treatment. One group received a one-paragraph description of each of four treatment (bell and pad, bladder retention training, psychotherapy, and drug therapy) with no risk/benefit information. The other group received exactly the same treatment descriptions and, additionally, risk/benefit information was included. Participation then indicated treatment preferences through paired comparison. The Low-Information group showed no difference in preference for bell and pad, psychotherapy, and bladder retention training, but preferred bell and pad to other treatments, and bladder retention training to psychotherapy and drug therapy. From the Low- to High-Information condition, there was a highly significantly increase in preference for bell and pad and a highly significant decrease in preference for psychotherapy. Implications and limitations are discussed.