Bed Wetting and Treatment with Oxybutynin (Ditropan) Part 1

Besides vasopressin and the tricyclic antidepressant (imipramine), other medications are also used to treat nocturnal enuresis. This includes the anticholinergic drugs. Over the past 40 years, many different anti cholinergic medications have been developed and some have found use in treatment of bed wetting.

In some individuals who wet the bed it has been observed that the bladder muscle is hyperactive. Any minor stimuli causes it to contract which then results in bed-wetting. The anti cholinergic medications act by relaxing the bladder muscles.

There are also some individuals who have a very small bladder and are not able to retain urine. Some features of a hyperactive and small bladder include:

- Sudden need to urinate
- Urinate more often than normal
- Persistent dribbling of urine or having wet pants or underclothes
- Leakage of urine when the urge to urinate comes on (unable to control urine flow)
- Pain on urination

By decreasing the incidence of muscle spasms in the bladder, the bed wetting episodes decrease- at least that is how it is in theory.