Office assessment of patient outcome of pharmacologic therapy for urge incontinence

Thirty adult women with urge urinary incontinence were included in this study. After completing the basic evaluation, including a self-administered incontinence questionnaire, patients were treated with a bladder relaxant preparation for 6-8 weeks. At follow-up the incontinence questionnaire and a global assessment of outcome scale were administered. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests, with a subsequent Tukey's test. After 6-8 weeks of therapy, 63% of patients reported that they were greatly or moderately improved, with a significant mean decrease in their total urge score of 51%. Subjects slightly improved (12%) and unimproved/worse (20%) had no significant change in their mean urge score. Most patients with great or moderate improvement continued with their initial drug treatment. Successful pharmacotherapy for urinary urge incontinence may be assessed by a simple global scale which correlated well with response to the MESA questionnaire. Moderate and greatly improved patients correlated with a 50% mean decrease in urge score and continued their initial drug therapy.