Risks of duloxetine for stress incontinence outweigh benefits, say researchers

The antidepressant duloxetine should not be used to treat stress urinary incontinence in women because the harms outweigh the benefits, authors of a new analysis have said.

Although duloxetine reduced the symptoms of stress urinary incontinence and improved women’s quality of life, the harms related to suicidality and violence were 4 to 5 times more common with duloxetine than with a placebo, a meta analysis using patient level data by researchers from the Nordic Cochrane Centre showed.1

The researchers from Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen made their comments after conducting a meta-analysis using clinical study reports submitted to the European Medicines Agency for regulatory approval of duloxetine for stress urinary incontinence in women. They first gained access to clinical study …