Urinary Urgency Medications May Compromise Discrete rather than Global Cognitive Skills

Prior research about cognitive problems associated with the use of urinary urgency medication (UUM) has reported mixed results that suggest procedures and/or assessments may need to be refined.

Ten elderly subjects who were actively taking a UUM were assessed with neuropsychological testing before and after a 4-week UUM washout period. Results were evaluated by examining discrete subtest results, full-scale scores, and the reliable change index methodology.

Four controls and 5 subjects with mild cognitive impairment showed significant improvement in at least one subtest score on well-characterized instruments.

In this case study of 10 subjects, withdrawal of oxybutynin and tolterodine resulted in significant changes in subtest scores with different patterns for each subject that were not necessarily reflected in their total scores. Thus, future clinical studies should always include analysis of subtest results as these changes may be the only indication that cognition has been improved or has declined significantly.