Psychological improvements associated with behavioral and drug treatment of urge incontinence in older women

The purpose of this study was to explore changes in psychological distress associated with behavioral treatment and drug treatment for urge incontinen ce in community-dwelling older women. Participants were 197 ambulatory, non demented women (aged 55 years or older) with persistent urge urinary incont inence. Participants were patients in a randomized clinical trial comparing biofeedback-assisted behavioral treatment, drug treatment with oxybutynin chloride, and a placebo-control condition. Psychological distress was measu red before and after treatment using the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-90- R). Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance showed that the two tr eatment groups and the control group had similar significant improvements o n the nine subscales and the global severity index. Analysis of individual SCL-90-R subscale scores revealed trends suggesting that behavioral treatme nt tended to produce the largest improvements. The reductions of distress w ere not correlated consistently with reduction of incontinence. The results of this study showed that psychological distress was significantly reduced after treatment, regardless of the type of treatment.