Abstract
Purpose
To assess the effectiveness of acupuncture in treating female adult with overactive bladder.
Materials and methods
After we excluded other causes for storage symptoms, a total of 240 consecutive female patients with overactive bladder were enrolled and completed all aspects of this prospective randomized controlled trial, of which 118 cases were randomly assigned to receive a weekly acupuncture treatment (intervention group), while the other 122 cases were given a pharmacological treatment of oral tolterodine tartrate 2 mg twice daily (control group) for 4 weeks. Data on urgency, incontinence, micturition frequency, nocturia episodes and voided volume were collected and statistically analyzed before and after 4 weekly acupuncture treatments or 4 weeks’ pharmacological treatment using a 3-day micturition diary.
Results
The two groups of female patients with overactive bladder were given treatment with weekly acupuncture (n = 118), oral tolterodine tartrate (n = 122) for 4 weeks respectively. At weeks 4, subjects in both intervention and control groups had significant decreases in number of urinary urgency episodes, incontinence episodes, daytime frequency, nocturia episodes and increase in volume voided per micturition without a significant difference in the changes of overactive bladder symptoms between the groups. There were no serious adverse events during the study.
Conclusions
This randomized controlled trial demonstrates that acupuncture is safe with significant improvements in patient assessment of overactive bladder symptoms and may be considered a clinically alternative treatment for overactive bladder in female adult.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abrams P, Cardozo L, Fall M et al (2002) The standardisation of terminology of lower urinary tract function: report from the standardisation sub-committee of the International Continence Society. Neurourol Urodyn 21:167–178
Stewart WF, Van Rooyen JB, Cundiff GW et al (2003) Prevalence and burden of overactive bladder in the United States. World J Urol 20(6):327–336
Irwin DE, Mungapen L, Milsom I et al (2009) The economic impact of overactive bladder syndrome in six Western countries. BJU Int 103(2):202–209
Lam S, Hilas O (2007) Pharmacologic management of overactive bladder. Clin Interv Aging 2(3):337–345
Ulahannan D, Wagg A (2009) The safety and efficacy of tolterodine extended release in the treatment of overactive bladder in the elderly. Clin Interv Aging 4:191–196
Chapple R, Cardozo L, Steers WD (2006) Solifenacin significantly improves all symptoms of overactive bladder syndrome. Int J Clin Pract 60(8):959–966
Appell RA (1997) Clinical efficacy and safety of tolterodine in the treatment of overactive bladder: a pooled analysis. Urology 50(suppl):90–96
Burgio KL, Locher JL, Goode PS, Hardin JM, McDowell BJ, Dombrowski M et al (1998) Behavioral vs drug treatment for urge urinary incontinence in older women: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 280:1995–2000
Minni B, Capozza N, Creti G, De Gennaro M, Caione P, Bischko J (1990) Bladder instability and enuresis treated by acupuncture and electro-therapeutics: early urodynamic observations. Acupunct Electrother Res 15:19–25
Chang PL (1988) Urodynamic studies in acupuncture for women with frequency, urgency and dysuria. J Urol 140:563–566
Bergstrom K, Carlsson CP, Lindholm C, Widengren R (2000) Improvement of urge- and mixed-type incontinence after acupuncture treatment among elderly women—a pilot study. J Auton Nerv Syst 79:173–180
Bergström K, Carlsson CP, Lindholm C, Widengren R (2000) Improvement of urge- and mixed-type incontinence after acupuncture treatment among elderly women—a pilot study. J Auton Nerv Syst 79(2–3):173–180
Bradnam L (2007) A proposed clinical reasoning model for Western acupuncture. J Acupunct Assoc Chart Physiother 21–30. http://www.aacp.org.uk/journal-public-archive/194-journal-aacp-2007-spring
Aydoğmuş Y, Sunay M, Arslan H, Aydın A, Adiloğlu AK, Sahin H (2014). Acupuncture versus solifenacin for treatment of overactive bladder and its correlation with urine nerve growth factor levels: a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Urol Int [Epub ahead of print]
Paik SH, Han SR, Kwon OJ, Ahn YM, Lee BC, Ahn SY (2013) Acupuncture for the treatment of urinary incontinence: a review of randomized controlled trials. Exp Ther Med 6(3):773–780
Sung LM, Jiaqi W. (2006) Acupuncture for urinary incontinence in adults without neurological disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews: Protocols Issue 4 Wiley, Chichester, UK. Art. No. CD006235
Zhishun L, Baoyan L, Tao Y et al (2002) Clinical study of electroacupuncture treatment of senile urge urinary incontinence. Int J Clin Acupunct 13(4):255–262
Emmons SL, Otto L (2005) Acupuncture for overactive bladder: a randomized controlled trial. Obstet Gynecol 106(1):138–143
Philp T, Shah PJ, Worth PH (1988) Acupuncture in the treatment of bladder instability. Br J Urol 61(6):490–493
Zaslawski CJ, Cobbin D, Lidums E, Petocz P (2003) The impact of site specificity and needle manipulation on changes to pain pressure threshold following manual acupuncture: a controlled study. Complement Ther Med 11(1):11–21
Peters KM, Macdiarmid SA, Wooldridge LS, Leong FC, Shobeiri SA, Rovner ES, Siegel SW, Tate SB, Jarnagin BK, Rosenblatt PL, Feagins BA (2009) Randomized trial of percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation versus extended-release tolterodine: results from the overactive bladder innovative therapy trial. J Urol 182(3):1055–1061
Peters KM, Carrico DJ, Perez-Marrero RA, Khan AU, Wooldridge LS, Davis GL, Macdiarmid SA (2010) Randomized trial of percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation versus Sham efficacy in the treatment of overactive bladder syndrome: results from the SUmiT trial. J Urol 183(4):1438–1443
Finazzi-Agrò E, Petta F, Sciobica F, Pasqualetti P, Musco S, Bove P (2010) Percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation effects on detrusor overactivity incontinence are not due to a placebo effect: a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trial. J Urol 184(5):2001–2006
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my sincerest gratitude and appreciation to all those who gave me the possibility to complete this study. Especially, special recognition goes out to Ms Lei Jing and Mr Yuan Leilei, whose support, encouragement and patience helped me all my life.
Conflict of interest
We declare that we have no financial relationships with other people or companies that can inappropriately influence our work.
Ethical standard
The study has been approved by the hospital and the local ethics committee and it conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yuan, Z., He, C., Yan, S. et al. Acupuncture for overactive bladder in female adult: a randomized controlled trial. World J Urol 33, 1303–1308 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-014-1440-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-014-1440-0