Current evidence also suggests the efficacy of  dimethyl sulfoxide and amitryptyline therapy .
Hydroxyzine , intravesical bacille Calmette-Guérin  , and  resiniferatoxin therapy  failed to demonstrate efficacy , but evidence was inconclusive owing to method ological limitations .
Pentosan polysulfate may be modestly beneficial for symptoms of PBS/IC .
There is insufficient evidence for other pharmacologic treatments .
BACKGROUND More than 180 different types of therapy have been used in the treatment and management of  painful bladder syndrome/interstitial cystitis ( PBS/IC ) , yet evidence from clinical trials remains inconclusive .
This study aim ed to evaluate the efficacy of pharmacologic approaches to PBS/IC , to quantify the effect size from r and omized controlled trials , and to begin to inform a clinical consensus of treatment efficacy for PBS/IC .
Pilot study of sequential oral antibiotics for the treatment of interstitial cystitis.
PURPOSE Interstitial cystitis is a chronic disease of unknown etiology characterized by bladder pain , urgency and frequency . Although a single microbe has not been implicated as a cause of interstitial cystitis , several groups noted various organisms in the urine of some women with interstitial cystitis and some patients reported that antibiotics decrease symptoms . Consequently we performed a prospect i ve , r and omized , double-blinded , placebo controlled pilot study of sequential oral antibiotics . MATERIAL S AND METHODS We r and omized 50 patients with interstitial cystitis to receive 18 weeks of placebo or antibiotics , including rifampin plus a sequence of doxycycline , erythromycin , metronidazole , clindamycin , amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin for 3 weeks each . RESULTS Intent to treat analysis demonstrated that 12 of 25 patients ( 48 % ) in the antibiotic and 6 of 25 ( 24 % ) in the placebo group reported overall improvement ( p = 0.14 ) , while 10 and 5 , respectively , noticed improvement in pain and urgency ( p = 0.22 ) . In the antibiotic group 20 participants ( 80 % ) had adverse effects compared with 10 ( 40 % ) in the placebo group ( p = 0.009 ) . CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that these antibiotics alone or in combination may sometimes be associated with decreased symptoms in some patients but they do not represent a major advance in therapy for interstitial cystitis
Current evidence also suggests the efficacy of  dimethyl sulfoxide and amitryptyline therapy .
Hydroxyzine , intravesical bacille Calmette-Guérin  , and  resiniferatoxin therapy  failed to demonstrate efficacy , but evidence was inconclusive owing to method ological limitations .
Pentosan polysulfate may be modestly beneficial for symptoms of PBS/IC .
There is insufficient evidence for other pharmacologic treatments .
BACKGROUND More than 180 different types of therapy have been used in the treatment and management of  painful bladder syndrome/interstitial cystitis ( PBS/IC ) , yet evidence from clinical trials remains inconclusive .
This study aim ed to evaluate the efficacy of pharmacologic approaches to PBS/IC , to quantify the effect size from r and omized controlled trials , and to begin to inform a clinical consensus of treatment efficacy for PBS/IC .