Does the time of administration (morning or evening) affect the tolerability or efficacy of tamsulosin?

Objective To determine whether the time of dosing (morning or evening) affe cts the tolerability or efficacy of tamsulosin in the treatment of lower ur inary tract symptoms, Patients and methods Data were analysed from an open-label, observational s tudy in which patients were treated with 0.4 mg tamsulosin once daily for 1 2 weeks. Treatment effects were determined using the Benign Prostatic Hyper plasia Impact Index, the quality-of-life question of the International Pros tate Symptom Score, a similarly phrased question about sexual satisfaction, the maximum urinary now rate, the postvoid residual urine volume, and the overall efficacy and tolerability, The results were analysed statistically for differences between dosing times, using analysis of covariance for the quantitative variables and logistic regression for the qualitative variable s. Results While no specific recommendation about the dosing time was given in the trial, the retrospective analysis showed that 4420 and 2087 patients r eceived tamsulosin in the morning and evening, respectively. Both groups ha d similar values for all variables before treatment. The efficacy and toler ability of tamsulosin treatment was also similar in both groups: there were small advantages for morning dosing, which were statistically significant because there were many patients. Conclusion In contrast to other alpha -blockers, night-time dosing is not n ecessary to improve the tolerability or efficacy of tamsulosin.