New Strategies to Treat Overactive Bladder

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Overactive bladder (OAB) is defined by the International Continence Society as a syndrome characterized by urgency with or without urge incontinence, usually with frequency and nocturia. About 33.3 million adults suffer from OAB in United States. The overall prevalence of OAB was 16.9% in women and 16.2% in men. The impact of OAB on quality of life is psychological, social, and profound. Antimuscarinic drugs are the first-line pharmacotherapy. However, many OAB patients withdraw from antimuscarinic treatment within 6-12 months due to its moderate efficacy and significant adverse effects such as dry mouth, constipation, headache, and blurred vision. Sacral neuromodulation is another treatment option, which is only offered to OAB patients after pharmacotherapy failed. However, the clinical benefit of sacral neuromodulation is significantly limited by its invasiveness, cost, and the requirement for well-trained surgeons. Currently it remains as a therapeutic challenge for clinicians to successfully treat OAB. The goal of this grant application is to develop new strategies to meet this therapeutic challenge. We hypothesize that combination of electrical and pharmacological neuromodulation can significantly improve the efficacy of current treatments for OAB, and create new, effective, non-invasive treatments acceptable for more patients. The first specific aim is to determine the efficacy of combined electrical and pharmacological neuromodulation. The second specific aim is to develop effective, non-invasive neuromodulation methods. The innovation of this project lies in its combinatorial approach that utilizes both pharmacological and electrical neuromodulation to target multiple neurotransmitters/receptors in order to treat the multifactorial disease - OAB. The success of our project could create several new treatment strategies for OAB with high efficacy, less adverse effect, less invasiveness, easy management, and acceptable for more patients, especially for the elderly and children patients who can not tolerate the adverse effects of pharmacotherapy or invasive surgery of sacral neuromodulation. Our studies will significantly benefit millions of Americans suffering from OAB. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The impact of overactive bladder (OAB) on quality of life is psychological, social, and profound. Currently it remains as a therapeutic challenge for clinicians to successfully treat OAB. Our project could create several new treatment strategies for OAB with high efficacy, less adverse effect, less invasiveness, easy management, acceptable for more patients (elderly and children), and significantly benefit millions of Americans suffering from OAB.