Main Article Content
Practice Points: Pharmacological therapy of female urinary incontinence
Abstract
Objective: To review the use of various drugs in treatment of female urinary incontinence [UI] and present the current evidence-based recommendations.
Methods: Systemmatic review of literature
Results: The strength of evidence for the use of such agents, however, varies from data obtained from pharmacological and physiological experiments to those derived from clinical studies. Hence, the use of some of the currently prescribed drugs for treatment of female UI is founded more on tradition than on evidence based on results from controlled clinical trials. There is also an urgent medical need for a new smooth muscle agent for treating UI in women because current drug therapy of UI is either inadequate or ineffective. Therefore, further clinical experience with drugs that selectively modulate the electrophysiological properties and the intracellular pathways of the smooth muscles of the lower urinary tract in women as therapeutic agents for UI is awaited with interest.
Key words: Drugs, pharmacology, urinary incontinence, women
African Journal of Health Sciences Vol.5(1) 2005: 79-85