Combination therapy studies of third-line treatments were rare and centered on medication with PTNS .
Combination therapy , with certain first , second , and third-line OAB therapies , appears to be efficacious .
AIMS Overactive bladder ( OAB ) affects over 17 % of the population and significantly effect the health-related quality of life .
The treatments for OAB include first line ( lifestyle modification , pelvic floor muscle training ) , second line ( anticholinergic or beta-3 agonist medications ) , and third line therapies ( intradetrusor botulinum toxin injection , sacral neurostimulation [ SNM ] , or percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation [ PTNS ] ) .
For those with urinary incontinence secondary to OAB , complete continence is the goal of therapy , though cure rates are only 5 % to 40 % .
The use of combination therapies can be employed in refractory OAB , however , the efficacy of pooled modalities is relatively unknown .
Our objective was to determine the volume of data supporting combination therapy in treating OAB .
A comparison of the efficacy of darifenacin alone vs. darifenacin plus a Behavioural Modification Programme upon the symptoms of overactive bladder
Purpose This study assessed the benefit of adding behavioural modification to darifenacin treatment for overactive bladder ( OAB ) . Material s and methods The ABLE trial was a r and omised , open-label , parallel-group , multicentre study of 12 weeks of darifenacin treatment [ with voluntary up-titration from 7.5 mg once daily ( qd ) to 15 mg qd at week 2 ] alone or in combination with a Behavioural Modification Programme ( BMP ) for men and women with dry or wet OAB .  Efficacy was assessed as the change in the number ( per day ) of micturitions ( primary variable ) , urge urinary incontinence ( UUI ) episodes , urgency episodes , pads used and nocturnal voids . Health-related quality of life ( HRQoL ) was also evaluated . Tolerability and safety assessment s included adverse events and the number of discontinuations . Results Of 592 patients screened , 395 were r and omised , 190 to darifenacin alone and 205 to darifenacin + BMP .  At baseline , the majority of subjects were dry ( mean 2.8 and three UUI episodes per day in the darifenacin and darifenacin + BMP groups respectively ) . At study end , darifenacin alone and darifenacin + BMP both produced significant reductions from baseline in median numbers of micturitions , UUI episodes , urgency episodes and nocturnal voids ( all p < 0.05 ) , but not in the number of pads used . HRQoL also improved . There were no significant differences between treatment groups in efficacy or HRQoL variables . Conclusions Darifenacin treatment provides a degree of normalisation of micturition variables and improvement in HRQoL that can not be further enhanced by behavioural therapy of the type used in this study . Whether behavioural modification would add benefit over darifenacin treatment in patients with more pronounced incontinence problems remains to be determined
Combination therapy studies of third-line treatments were rare and centered on medication with PTNS .
Combination therapy , with certain first , second , and third-line OAB therapies , appears to be efficacious .
AIMS Overactive bladder ( OAB ) affects over 17 % of the population and significantly effect the health-related quality of life .
The treatments for OAB include first line ( lifestyle modification , pelvic floor muscle training ) , second line ( anticholinergic or beta-3 agonist medications ) , and third line therapies ( intradetrusor botulinum toxin injection , sacral neurostimulation [ SNM ] , or percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation [ PTNS ] ) .
For those with urinary incontinence secondary to OAB , complete continence is the goal of therapy , though cure rates are only 5 % to 40 % .
The use of combination therapies can be employed in refractory OAB , however , the efficacy of pooled modalities is relatively unknown .
Our objective was to determine the volume of data supporting combination therapy in treating OAB .