Tamsulosin may benefit men with overactive bladder

Short-course treatment with the α-blocker tamsulosin helps reduce overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms in men, a study has found.

The study used data from the run-in phase of the Male Overactive Bladder Trial in Veterans (MOTIVE). In this phase, 116 male veterans aged 42–88 years who had OAB received tamsulosin 0.4 mg daily for 4 weeks.

Participants who had urinary urgency and urinary frequency of >8 voids per day completed bladder diaries, answered symptom questionnaires (AUA-7 SI), and underwent postvoid residual and noninvasive uroflowmetry measurement.

Results showed that tamsulosin treatment produced statistically significant reductions in voiding frequency, from 11.3 voids per day at baseline to 10.0 voids per day at week 4 (p<0.0001). Likewise, urgency scores decreased from 2.5 to 2.2 points (p<0.0001), while nightly nocturia dropped from 2.1 to 1.8 episodes (p<0.001).

When looking at possible factors associated with symptom improvement, only baseline AUA-7 SI total and voiding subscale categories (mild, moderate, severe) correlated with significant reductions in AUA-7 SI total score at week 4.

Among continuous variables, only AUA-7 SI baseline total score showed an association with AUA-7 SI storage symptom changes at week 4. No other baseline measures predicted changes in urgency, frequency, or nocturia.

The present data merit further exploration, according to the researchers.