Definition
Clinical condition characterized by repeated episodes of incontinence, inappropriate, or involuntary voiding of feces beyond the chronologic and developmental point that consistent control would be expected. The behavior is not attributable to medication effect, substance use, or general medical condition. Diagnosis of encopresis should be clarified as either with or without constipation and overflow incontinence.
Categorization
Encopresis is classified with the Elimination Disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association 2013). Diagnostic criteria in the DSM and other systems, including the ICCS and Rome III, are reviewed by Bael et al. (2007) and later by von Gontard (2013). Notably, the Rome III criteria restricts the use of the term “encopresis” to conditions with fecal retention, in contrast to the DSM system (APA 2013...
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References and Readings
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington: American Psychiatric Association Publishing.
Bael, A. M., Benninga, M. A., Lax, H., Bachmann, H., Janhsen, E., De Jong, Tom P. V. M., . . . Van Gool, J. D. (2007). Functional urinary and fecal incontinence in neurologically normal children: Symptoms of one “functional elimination disorder”? BJU International, 99(2), 407–412. doi:10.1111/j.1464-410X.2006.06528.x.
Feeney, D. J. (2005). Elimination disorders: Enuresis and encopresis. In W. M. Klykylo & J. L. Kay (Eds.), Clinical child psychiatry (2nd ed.). Chichester: Wiley. doi:10.1002/0470022116.ch18.
Feeney, D. J. (2006). Elimination disorders: Enuresis and encopresis. Chichester: Wiley. doi:10.1002/0470022116.ch18.
Friman, P. C., Hofstadter, K. L., & Jones, K. M. (2006). A biobehavioral approach to the treatment of functional encopresis in children. Journal of Early and Intensive Behavior Intervention, 3(3), 263–272. doi:10.1037/h0100340.
Koppen, I., von Gontard, A., Chase, J., Cooper, C., Rittig, C., Bauer, S., . . . Benninga, M. (2016). Management of functional nonretentive fecal incontinence in children: Recommendations from the international children’s continence society. Journal of Pediatric Urology, 12 (1), 56–64.
Sá, C. A., Gusmão Paiva, A. C., de Menezes, M. C. L. B., de Oliveira, L. F., Gomes, C. A., de Figueiredo, A. A.,. . . Netto, J. M. B. (2016). Increased risk of physical punishment among enuretic children with family history of enuresis. The Journal of Urology, 195 (4), Part 2, 1227–1231. doi: 10.1016/j.juro.2015.11.022.
von Gontard, A. (2013). The impact of DSM-5 and guidelines for assessment and treatment of elimination disorders. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 22, 61–67. doi:10.1007/s00787-012-0363-9.
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Rolston, C. (2017). Encopresis. In: Kreutzer, J., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_9192-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_9192-1
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