[Anticholinergic drugs in overactive bladder]

The overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) associates urgency, frequency, nycturia, more or less associated with urinary incontinence. Its frequency is between 16 to 45 %, in the general population; the number of affected people in the USA being estimated at 34 million. Symptomatology is primarily marked by the abrupt, irrepressible need to urinate, impossible to defer, but also by a diurnal and night high mictional frequency. This OAB is more frequent when patients age increases, and affects indifferently men and women. The OAB induces a known negative impact on the quality of life and can lead to depression, sexual disorders, sleep disorders and a professional absenteism. The OAB medical treatment is actively concerned by the research since the discovery of oxybutinine. Tolterodin, solifenacin, darifenacin, trospium chloride supplement the therapeutic arsenal. New formulations (immediate and extended releases), new administration mediums (intravesical, transdermic, vaginal, rectal), new active ingredients (botulinic toxin, capsaicine, resiniferatoxine) are currently tested. The therapeutic options multiply, aiming at reducing to the maximum symptomatology, as well as the induced side effects.