Acupuncture for overactive bladder: a randomized controlled trial.
OBJECTIVE
To compare acupuncture treatment for overactive bladder with urge incontinence with a placebo acupuncture treatment.


METHODS
Eighty-five women enrolled in this randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Women were randomly assigned to either receive an acupuncture treatment expected to improve their bladder symptoms, or a placebo acupuncture treatment designed to promote relaxation. They underwent cystometric testing, completed a 3-day voiding diary, and completed the urinary distress inventory and incontinence impact questionnaire, validated quality-of-life inventories, before and after 4 weekly acupuncture treatments. The primary endpoint was number of incontinent episodes over 3 days. Secondary endpoints included voiding frequency and urgency, cystometric bladder capacity, maximum voided volume, and the urinary distress inventory and incontinence impact questionnaire symptom scores.


RESULTS
Seventy-four women completed all aspects of the study. Women in both treatment and placebo groups had significant decreases in number of incontinent episodes (59% for treatment, 40% for placebo) without a significant difference in the change between the groups. Women in the treatment group had a 14% reduction in urinary frequency (P = .013), a 30% reduction in the proportion of voids associated with urgency (P = .016), and a 13% increase in both maximum voided volume and maximum cystometric capacity (P = .01). Both groups also had an improvement in the urinary distress inventory and incontinence impact questionnaire scores (54% decrease for treatment, 30% decrease for placebo, P < .001 for the difference in change between the groups).


CONCLUSIONS
Women who received 4 weekly bladder-specific acupuncture treatments had significant improvements in bladder capacity, urgency, frequency, and quality-of-life scores as compared with women who received placebo acupuncture treatments.


METHODS
I.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, 97239, USA. emmonss@ohsu.edu
Sandra L
SL
Emmons
Lesley
L
Otto
D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011336:Probability; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D014550:Urinary Incontinence, Stress / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D014563:Urodynamics