Cognitive-behavioral therapy and urge urinary incontinence in women. A systematic review

UUI co-exists with numerous health conditions, having a substantial negative impact on health-related quality of life and mental health. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) could help patients manage these problems by changing the way they think and behave.

We carried out a systematic review of the literature assessing the modalities and effects of CBT as a stand-alone strategy, without adding PFMT, on symptoms and clinical signs, in women with UUI. Our secondary objective was to report modalities and effects of CBT on health-related quality of life, psychological symptoms and patient-reported satisfaction. The PRISMA methodology was used to carry out this systematic review. A literature search was conducted in PubMed, PEDro, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases from inception to December 2020. The PICO approach was used to determine the eligibility criteria.

Twelve papers were included in the present review which showed beneficial effects on both symptom severity (p < 0.05) and more subjective areas such as quality of life, psychological symptoms or patient satisfaction level (p < 0.05), respectively). However, results on the effectiveness of CBT on clinical signs remains conflicting.

Based on the available literature, this review suggested a high level of evidence for the effectiveness of CBT on symptom severity and a moderate level of evidence for the effectiveness of CBT on quality of life, psychological symptoms and patient satisfaction. However, we highlighted no evidence for the effects of CBT on clinical signs.