4 medications linked to urinary incontinence

If you are showing signs of urinary incontinence or if your incontinence problem seems to be getting worse, take stock of your medicine cabinet. Not for a new remedy, but to find overlooked causes of incontinence, or the explanation for your worsening symptoms.

Commonly used medicines could be the cause of your incontinence, or at least contributing to it.

Medicines affect people differently, so one person with incontinence may not notice worsening symptoms, while another person does.

If you suspect medication may be worsening or may even be the cause of your urinary incontinence, describe your incontinence symptoms to your doctor and let him or her know about all the medicines you take, both prescription and over-the-counter. That way your doctor can help determine whether these medicines should be adjusted or stopped, or if a treatment should be modified.

Here are the most common medications that can worsen or cause urinary incontinence:

1. High blood pressure medications and incontinence

Alpha blockers prescribed to control high blood pressure work by dilating blood vessels to reduce your blood pressure.

In women, alpha blockers can relax the bladder too. "So, if they cough or sneeze, they might lose urine," says Dr Rodney Appell, a director at a centre for incontinence.

If you are a woman on an alpha blocker and you are experiencing urinary incontinence, Appell advises that you go back to the doctor who prescribed the alpha blocker. He suggests that you “ask if there is something else you can be treated with".

In men these medications actually are prescribed to help with urination problems. In men with an enlarged prostate, a condition called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), alpha blockers can help relax the muscles in the bladder neck, letting urine flow more easily and improving symptoms of BPH.

2. Antidepressants and incontinence

While a few antidepressants actually help urinary incontinence, such as tricyclic antidepressants, most can worsen symptoms, at least in some people, says Appell.

Antidepressants can impair the contractility of the bladder, and that can worsen symptoms of overflow incontinence, in which the bladder can't empty completely. Other antidepressants may decrease your awareness of the need to go to the toilet.

If you think your antidepressant is worsening your incontinence, talk to your doctor about switching to another medication.

3. Diuretics and incontinence

Commonly called "water pills", diuretics work in the kidney to reduce blood pressure by flushing excess water and salt out of the body.

"If you take your diuretic, you are making more urine," says Dr David Ginsberg, a urologist and associate professor of clinical urology.

That translates to more toilet visits and a worsening of incontinence symptoms, he says.

"If you need the diuretic, you need it," says Ginsberg. However, he recommends you pay more attention to the recommended incontinence treatments, following your doctor's instructions to the letter.