Adrenergic Drugs for Urinary Incontinence in Adults- Evidence from a Cochrane

Aims of Study Urinary incontinence is estimated to affect over 10% of the adult female population. Stress urinary incontinence is conventionally treated with conservative physical therapies and if this is unsuccessful, surgery. However, surgery is not without morbidity. Adrenergic drugs are thought to act by stimulating contraction of the bladder outlet sphincter. Drug treatment of stress urinary incontinence with adrenergic drugs is generally considered to be ineffective or their use severely limited by side effects such as hypertension, pilo-erection and central nervous system stimulation. Despite this pessimism, there is continuing clinical and pharmacological interest in their use, but data from randomised controlled trials are scarce. Adrenergic agonist drugs are rarely used in men, but they could have a place in the management stress urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy.