The pharmacotherapy time-to-effect of overactive bladder medications and treatment duration

Abstract

For Overactive Bladder (OAB) treatment, pharmacotherapy is currently deemed as a second option. However, in the current publications related to OAB, there is a significant research gap concerning the time-to-effect and duration of OAB pharmacotherapy. Such data is vital for effective and successful treatment of OAB, and hence, the study aimed to find information in this gap to assist healthcare providers in their daily activities in treating OAB. The study utilized the Web of Science databases, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and PubMed Central to find and collect the highest number of data. The literature review showed limited research concerning the time-to-effect and optimal treatment duration for OAB. However, based on the available data, it can be stated that the time-to-effect of OAB pharmacotherapy would be after seven days of the initial treatment. Besides, patients with OAB can be effectively treated for 6 to 12 months before the medications are stopped but patients need to be carefully educated about a risk of symptom reoccurrence and retreatment. Those who require further medications or have a higher risk of symptom reoccurrence may need lifetime pharmacotherapy or different treatment approaches. Further research is needed to focus on the time-to-effect during the first week of medication to accurately determine when first symptom reduction occurs, and carefully follow up for patients that show a positive response after the treatment has been ceased.