No. 283-Treatments for Overactive Bladder: Focus on Pharmacotherapy

To provide guidelines for pharmacotherapy to treat overactive bladder syndrome (OAB).

Pharmacotherapy for OAB includes anticholinergic (antimuscarinic) drugs and vaginal estrogen. Both oral and transdermal anticholinergic preparations are available.

To provide understanding of current available evidence concerning safety and clinical efficacy of pharmacotherapy for OAB; to guide selection of anticholinergic therapy based on individual patient characteristics.

The Cochrane Library and Medline were searched for articles published from 1950 to the present related to individual anticholinergic drugs. Review articles on management of refractory OAB were also examined. Results were restricted to systematic reviews, randomized control trials/controlled clinical trials, and observational studies. There were no date or language restrictions. Searches were updated on a regular basis and incorporated in the guideline to 2010.

The quality of evidence is rated and recommendations are made using the criteria described by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (Table 1).

Anticholinergics are the mainstay of pharmacotherapy for OAB. Evidence for their efficacy is mostly derived from short-term phase III randomized drug trials. Placebo response is strong, and long-term follow-up and patient subjective outcome data are lacking. Care providers need to be well acquainted with the side effects of anticholinergics and select therapy based on individual patient parameters.