Effect of Behavioral Sleep Intervention on Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms in Older Women
Urgency urinary incontinence (UUI) is common in older people and vastly reduces quality of life, yet the cause and mechanism of disease are not well understood. This study will investigate the role of adding behavioral sleep intervention to the standard pharmacotherapy in treatment of UUI among older adults, and the brain mechanisms involved in continence by evaluating brain changes. This will expand the current knowledge of how the sleep affects bladder control, and better characterize the brain mechanisms in maintaining continence.
• ambulatory women aged 60+ years
• urgency incontinence or urge-predominant mixed incontinence (able to differentiate between stress symptoms-cough, laugh, exercise-and leakage following the sudden onset of a strong urge to void that is difficult to defer during questioning on telephone screening) occurring at least five times weekly for ≥ 3 months despite treatment for reversible causes
• nocturia ≥2 each night
• subjects with current or previous use of anticholinergic medications will be considered for the study if willing to go through a washout period of at least 4 weeks of duration