Drug update: overactive bladder.(Clinical Rounds)

Publication: Skin & Allergy News

Publication Date: 01-APR-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 International Medical News Group

Health professionals increasingly recognize that an overactive bladder (OAB) presents significant quality-of-life problems for patients and warrants aggressive treatment. More medications are now available for treatment, including a transdermal patch that received Food and Drug Administration approval this year, and still more medications are on the way.

Only 20% of the estimated 17-20 million Americans who suffer from OAB seek help from a physician for their condition, which highlights the sensitive nature of the disorder. Many of those who do not seek help cope by "toilet mapping": memorizing the bathroom locations in places that they frequent. A more medically sound, nondrug therapy is bladder training with timed voiding. Bladder training uses biofeedback and Kegel exercises to help patients resist their sense of urgency and to urinate according to a timetable that's...

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