[Overactive bladder: modulating the effects of antimuscarinic therapy]

Overactive bladder (OAB) is a prevalent pathologic condition affecting millions of young, adult and aging people in the world. Although it is a underestimated disease, it causes a significant negative socio-economic impact and determines a severe deterioration of quality of life (QoL) of sufferers. The epidemiologic data today available regarding OAB incidence, prevalence and burden, have prompted a great interest about it. The effect of this research resulted in the availability of new clinical tools useful to investigate and easier diagnose OAB, such as voiding diary and specific symptomatic questionnaires. The most used drugs in the OAB treatment are the antimuscarinics, whose use is still limited due to their some side effects, mostly dry mouth and constipation. For this reason the pharmacologic research is involved in the development of drugs with a better receptorial selectivity, organ specificity, new extended release formulations or new ways of administration. The new extended release formulation of tolterodine, one of the most used drugs in OAB treatment, present a better tolerability maintaining its efficacy, with a consequent better therapeutic efficacy. Furthermore, the recent proposed night-time administration of the drug resulted in a even more lowering of side-effects due to their occurrence during the nocturnal resting.