The role of anticholinergic therapy based on the upoint system in the treatment of chronic prostatitis

Objective: Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is a common problem and severely impairs the quality of life (QoL). We aimed to investigate the effects of different treatment options on voiding symptoms and QoL in patients with urinary phenotype according to the UPOINT system.
Matherial and methods: Ninety-six patients with NIH category II,III CP/CPPS were included in the study prospectively. After the diagnosis, the questionnaires including NIH Chronic prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI), International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), Overactive Bladder Screening Questionnaire (OAB-V8), and Beck depression inventory were filled by the patients. The patients with urinary phenotype were treated by alpha-blocker, antimuscarinic or both therapy modalities (combined) considering the specific therapy recommendations by UPOINT. The questionnaires applied on the first visit were reapplied after one month and treatment success was evaluated.
Results: Seventy-three patients were included in ‘Urinary phenotype’ group (76%) and 23 were included in ‘other phenotypes’ (24%) group of the patients according to the UPOINT classification. Significant improvements of symptoms were observed with the all treatment modalities when the NIH-CPSI, IPSS and OAB-V8 scores were compared before and after treatment in the ‘Urinary phenotype’ group. Significant differences in the percentage of change in values were obtained in the anticholinergic group for pain subdomain of NIH-CPSI and IPSS scores.
Conclusion: U-POINT clasification is useful for deciding on the treatment modality in CP/CPSS patients. We showed anticholinergic therapy might be effective option. Addition to the symptomatic recovery, there is need more further studies about effectivity cholinergic system in the prostate tissue.