| Popis: |
Stress urinary incontinence (SUI), the complaint of involuntary loss of urine on effort or exertion, or on sneezing, coughing or laughing, is a common condition affecting millions of women world wide. SUI is a medical condition which can have a significant impact on the psychosocial, social and economic well-being of the sufferers and their family, thus significantly impairing their Quality of Life (QoL). Currently, women with SUI who wish to have their problem solved can choose between treatments like pelvic floor muscle training, which usually has poor compliance over time, or surgical procedures which are mainly an option for more severely affected patients with the risk of complications. To date, no pharmacological treatment for women with SUI has been widely approved. Duloxetine, a potent and relatively balanced serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor, has been evaluated in a clinical trial program of one phase II and three phase III trials world wide, and proven efficacious and safe in the treatment of women with SUI. Significant improvements in various parameters were reported with duloxetine compared to placebo in all trials. Half of the women experienced a median decrease in incontinence episode frequency (IEF) of 50–58%. Concurrent increases in incontinence Quality of Life scores (I-QOL) in the range of 5.5–11.1 points indicated that these improvements in IEF were sufficient for the women to feel noticeably better. Between 56% and 74% of the women treated with duloxetine stated that they felt better after treatment. Nausea was the most common side effect reported in the duloxetine-treated patients; it was usually mild to moderate and transient as it resolved in the majority of the cases in one to four weeks. Overall, duloxetine was well tolerated and efficacious. This drug has the potential to become the first widely approved pharmacological treatment for women with SUI. |
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