Clinical autonomic research : official journal of the Clinical Autonomic Research Society
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Urinary incontinence is the inability to willingly control bladder voiding. Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is the most frequently occurring type of incontinence in women. No widely accepted or approved drug therapy is yet available for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence. ⋯ In cats, whose bladder had initially been irritated with acetic acid, a dose-dependent improvement of the bladder capacity (5-fold) and periurethral EMG activity (8-fold) of the striated sphincter muscles was found. In a double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, clinical trial in women with stress urinary incontinence, there was a significant reduction in urinary incontinence episodes under duloxetine treatment. In summary, the pharmacological effect of duloxetine to increase the activity of the striated urethral sphincter together with clinical results indicate that duloxetine has an interesting therapeutic potential in patients with stress urinary incontinence.