Half of people with overactive bladder (OAB) experience anxiety symptoms, and about one quarter experience moderate-to-severe anxiety. People with OAB report higher anxiety than controls, and those with anxiety experience more severe bladder symptoms, poorer quality of life, and greater psychosocial difficulties. Anxiety produces physical manifestations such as lightheadedness, heart palpitations, and gastrointestinal discomfort. The bladder is a muscle and can respond to anxiety with increased urgency, frequency, or incontinence. Recognizing anxiety's role and learning individual bodily anxiety manifestations can aid coping with bladder-related stress responses. Integrated approaches addressing both anxiety and bladder symptoms can improve outcomes.
1) anxiety is prevalent among the clinical population - half of the OAB subjects had anxiety symptoms, and one quarter of OAB subjects had moderate to severe anxiety symptoms; 2) OAB subjects reported higher anxiety symptoms compared to controls; 3) OAB patients with anxiety reported more severe OAB/incontinence symptoms, worse quality of life, and more psychosocial difficulties compared to OAB patients without anxiety.
If so, what does the bladder have to do with it? In simple terms, anxiety often comes with a physical manifestation—whether it is lightheadedness, heart palpitations, gastrointestinal discomfort, or otherwise, the body responds (often strongly) to feelings of worry, anxiety, and stress. While more commonly experienced anxiety-body symptoms include those listed above, frequent urination, incontinence, or the urge to urinate flies under the radar in a sense; it is less well-known than the other, more "classic" physical responses.
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