α‐adrenoceptor blocking drugs and female urinary incontinence: prevalence and reversibility

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
There have been occasional reports of female stress incontinence related to prazosin therapy for hypertension. This drug is now rarely used but recently longer acting α‐adrenoceptor blocking drugs have been introduced. We have, therefore, investigated the prevalence of urinary incontinence in all our female patients who were receiving α‐adrenoceptor blockers in comparison with women, matched for age and parity who were receiving other drugs. We identified a total of 49 women taking α‐adrenoceptor blocking drugs (prazosin 4, terazosin 5, doxazosin 40) among current patients who were attending our hypertension clinic. Twenty of these (40.8%) reported some urinary incontinence whereas in the control patients, only 8 (16.3%) had this symptom (P=<0.02, relative risk 2.5, 95% CI 1.22–5.13). α‐Adrenoceptor blockers were withdrawn in 18 of the 20 patients with incontinence and in 13, their symptoms abated. Our results suggest that there is a significantly higher prevalence of urinary incontinence in women taking α‐adrenoceptor antagonists with reversibility on withdrawal of these drugs. As both female urinary incontinence, hypertension and the use of α‐adrenoceptor blocking drugs are common, this distressing side effect should be borne in mind so that gynaecological or urological treatment may be avoided in some women.