INCONTINENCE: Do Drugs Help?

Ideas for finding help instead of or in conjunction with medication

BY:MYRA DEMBROW

A November 2006 Consumer Reports article concluded that people with mild symptoms of overactive bladder try non-drug measures first, such as lifestyle changes and exercises that strengthen pelvic muscles. The report found that such self-help measures can reduce the urge to urinate, decrease frequent urination and restore sense of control in 80 percent of people who try them, based on a review of recent scientific studies.

These techniques may also provide added relief for people with severe symptoms who are taking drugs to treat the condition. Some benefit can be derived from using a prescription drug for bladder control, but be aware of side effects such as dry mouth, constipation and mental confusion

Among people with severe overactive bladder, the drugs may help reduce urination frequency from up to 20 times a day to about 15 to 18 times a day. But, of the approximately 13 million Americans the National Institutes of Health estimates as having an overactive bladder, urination occurs about 12 times per day, as opposed to six to 10 times daily for someone with normal bladder control. More women than men suffer from this condition, and women past age 40 have the problem more than any other group.

People taking any of the five drugs in the Consumer Reports study—oxybutynin (Ditropan, Ditropan XL and Oxytrol, a skin patch); tolterodine (Detrol, Detrol LA); trospium (Sanctura); solifenacin (Vesicare); and darifenacin (Enablex)—can expect the number of times they need to urinate to drop from an average of about 12 per day to seven to10 a day, the report said.

About half of those who suffer from overactive bladder, according to the NIH, also have urinary incontinence, which is the inability to control bladder leakage. Among these people, the report indicates, the drugs reduce the average number of incontinence episodes from three to five times per day to about two to four per day.