Hypnotherapy for treatment of overactive bladder: a randomized controlled trial pilot study

Area of Science:

• Urology
• Behavioral Medicine
• Psychosomatic Medicine

Background:

• Overactive bladder (OAB) significantly impacts quality of life.
• Behavioral therapies are established OAB treatments.
• The efficacy of hypnotherapy for OAB requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare hypnotherapy plus behavioral therapy against behavioral therapy alone for OAB.
• To gather pilot data on treatment efficacy and patient-reported outcomes.
• To inform the design of larger clinical trials.

Main Methods:

• Randomized pilot study involving women diagnosed with OAB.
• Participants were assigned to either hypnotherapy or behavioral therapy.
• Outcomes assessed included Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGI-I), OAB-q Short Form (OAB-q SF), and voiding diaries.

Main Results:

• Both treatment groups demonstrated significant improvements in voiding frequency and OAB-q SF distress scores.
• The hypnotherapy group achieved statistically significant improvements in quality-of-life scores, unlike the behavioral therapy group.
• Hypnotherapy yielded superior PGI-I scores compared to behavioral therapy alone.

Conclusions:

• Both hypnotherapy and behavioral therapy offer benefits for OAB symptom management.
• Hypnotherapy appears to provide superior patient-reported improvement and trends towards better quality-of-life outcomes.
• A larger, powered trial is warranted to confirm the potential superiority of hypnotherapy in OAB treatment.