Treatment Options for Clozapine-Induced Enuresis: a Review of Clinical Effectiveness
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TITLE: Treatment Options for Clozapine-Induced Enuresis: A Review of Clinical Effectiveness DATE: 27 September 2010 CONTEXT AND POLICY ISSUES: Clozapine is an atypical antipsychotic indicated in the management of treatment-resistant schizophrenia.1 Clozapine binds dopamine receptors as well as exerting potent anticholinergic, adrenolytic, antihistaminic, and antiserotoninergic activity.1 It has been shown to be efficacious in treating both the positive (e.g., hallucinations) and negative symptoms (e.g., social withdrawal) associated with schizophrenia. Patients treated with clozapine may experience adverse effects ranging in severity from relatively benign to serious and potentially life-threatening conditions such as seizures and agranulocytosis.1,2 One potential adverse effect is enuresis, or an inability to control urination, which can cause emotional stress and poor compliance among the affected patients.3 The true prevalence of clozapine-induced enuresis has yet to be determined as published estimates range from 0.23% to 44%.4,5 The reasons for this lack of consistency is are unclear and may be related to differences in dosage,6 ethnicity,7 and treatment setting.3 The mechanism for clozapine-induced enuresis has not been fully elucidated; however, a leading hypothesis involves blockade of the α-adrenergic receptors resulting in a decrease in internal bladder sphincter tone.7 A number of treatments are available for the management of enuresis including desmopressin,8 tricyclic antidepressants,9 anticholinergics,10 and alarms.11 However, there is currently no universally accepted approach to addressing clozapine-induced enuresis.2,6 This report reviews the safety and effectiveness of the various treatment strategies for clozapine- induced enuresis. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: 1. What treatments are available in Canada to treat clozapine-induced enuresis? 2. What are the potential adverse effects of treatments for clozapine-induced enuresis? METHODS: A limited literature search was conducted on key health technology assessment resources, including Ovid MEDLINE (1950 to August Week 3 2010), Ovid EMBASE (1996 to 2010 Week 34), PubMed, The Cochrane Library (Issue 8, 2010), University of York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) databases, ECRI (Health Devices Gold), EuroScan, international health technology agencies, and a focused Internet search. The search was limited to English language, with no time limit for articles’ publication dates. No filters were applied to limit the retrieval by study type. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: The literature search identified one prospective cohort study,6 and 13 case reports.4,12-23 There were no health technology assessments, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, randomized controlled clinical trials, uncontrolled clinical trials, or case control studies. Results from individual studies are summarized in Appendix 1 and the treatment strategies identified are listed in Appendix 2. Non-randomized studies Desmopressin There were six reports involving a total of ten patients that received desmopressin spray to treat their clozapine-induced nocturnal enuresis.4,15-19 The patients consisted of nine adults and one adolescent, ranging in age from 16 to 47 years. Five studies reported that the desmopressin was effective.4,16-19 One of these reports involved a patient who had received initial, unsuccessful treatment with tolterodine.19 The one case with negative results involved a patient that developed severe hyponatremia following two doses of desmopressin which required hospitalization in an intensive care unit. Hyponatremia is an important adverse event associated with treatment using desmopressin and the manufacturers recommend careful medical supervision when using this product. Furthermore, the patient that developed hyponatremia had a previously documented hyponatremic episode. The product monograph clearly indicates that desmopressin is contraindicated in patients with known hyponatremia.8 Two articles17,18 reported that no adverse events occurred with desmopressin treatment and three failed to report this information.4,16,19 The most common dosage was 10 μg/day in each nostril which is consistent with the average daily doses reported in the product monograph for desmopressin spray.8 Two case reports16,19 failed to provide the exact dosage used by the patients and only one reported the time to resolution.19 Anticholinergic agents There were two case series (n = 10) where patients were given the anticholinergic agent oxybutynin (5-15 mg/day) for nocturnal enuresis.16,17 Both articles stated that the treatment was effective; however, neither reported the time to resolution. The dosage was consistent with recommendations in the product monograph for oxybutynin.10 Frankenburg et al (1996)17 reported that no adverse events occurred with oxybutynin treatment and Lurie et al (1997)16 did not report the occurrence of adverse events in their study.16 Trihexiphenidyl, another anticholinergic agent, was reported to be effective at doses of 5 mg/day and 6 mg/day (n = 3).20,21 Poyurovsky et al (1996)20 stated that the nocturnal enuresis had resolved within five days of trihexiphenidyl treatment; however, Aggarwal et al (2009)21 did not report the time to onset for the therapeutic effect. Similar to oxybutynin, there were no adverse events in one study21 and other failed to provide this information.20 All patients in these case reports were adults; however, those receiving trihexiphenidyl were younger (range: 21-24 years) than those who received oxybutynin (range: 26-43 years). Antidepressants There was one case report where amitriptyline (25 mg/day), a tricyclic antidepressant, was provided to one patient (35 years of age) with clozapine-induced enuresis.12 The authors reported Treatment Options for Clozapine-Induced Enuresis 2 that after four days of amitriptyline therapy the enuresis had effectively resolved and that nocturnal and day-time sialorrhea were also improved. It was not reported if the patient experienced any adverse events due to the addition of amitriptyline to his/her therapeutic regimen. Antipsychotics Aripiprazole was used to treat three patients with clozapine-induced nocturnal enuresis at doses of 10-15 mg/day.13,14 The authors of these cases reported that the treatment was effective within 1 to 3 months. Rocha et al (2006)13 reported that no adverse events occurred after initiating treatment with aripiprazole and Lee and Kim (2010) did not report whether or not the patients experienced any adverse events.14 Another case involved ceasing treatment with clozapine and commencing therapy with olanzapine.23 The authors reported that the nocturnal enuresis remitted following this change in pharmacotherapy. The dosage of olanzapine was not reported nor was it reported if the patient experienced any adverse events from switching antipsychotics. The patients were all adults ranging in age from 27 years to 52 years. Adrenergic agonists Fuller et al (1996)6 conducted a small, prospective cohort study involving 16 patients with clozapine-induced urinary incontinence. The authors gave the patients ephedrine (25-150 mg/day) and reported improvement in symptoms of urinary incontinence in 15 patients within 24 hours of maximal dosing. There were no adverse events reported for these patients. The patients in this study were heterogeneous with regard to the dosages of clozapine (range: 200-700 mg/day); concomitant use of medications; and age (range: 32-69 years). Other approaches Frankenburg et al (1996)17 reported that the clozapine-induced enuresis was resolved in one patient by using an alarm clock set to wake the patient in the middle night. Once woken the patient could voluntarily empty his/her bladder. Pojurovsky et al (1995)22 used 40-80 mg/day of verapamil, an L-type calcium channel blocker, to treat two patients with clozapine-induced enuresis.22 The authors noted that the 80 mg/day treatment was effective and that the enuresis had resolved after one day. The patient experienced bradycardia (reduction of 11-22 beats/min) for five days after the first dose of 40 mg/day verapamil and for 4 days following the first dose of 80 mg/day verapamil. Kho et al (2001)23 also reported individual cases where clozapine-induced nocturnal enuresis was resolved following initiation of valproic acid (1500 mg/day) to control seizures (n = 1) and with the initiation of insulin to control diabetes (n = 1). The duration between initiating these therapies and resolution of the enuresis was not reported by the study authors. Limitations There were no randomized controlled trials, uncontrolled clinical trials, larger cohort studies, or case control studies identified. The evidence identified in this review consists of case reports4,12-23 and one small (16 patients), prospective cohort study.6 These study designs are typically considered poor for accurately assessing the effectiveness of interventions and may carry a high risk of bias. Planning and conducting a controlled clinical trial could be difficult in this population as the true prevalence of clozapine-induced enuresis has yet to be determined. Treatment Options for Clozapine-Induced Enuresis 3 Among the included studies, six failed to provide a clear indication of the time required to resolve the enuresis following treatment.4,16-18,20,23 The dosage of clozapine was heterogeneous between the various patients described in the case reports (range: 150-900 mg/day); however, no one exceed the maximum recommended dose of 900 mg/day and most were within the expected