Behavior and Exercise Versus Drug Treatment in Men With Nocturia

Nocturia, waking at night from sleep to void, is a prevalent and troublesome symptom. While other lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS)-- including poor urinary stream, urgency, frequency, and straining to void-- are also common, nocturia is one of the most bothersome LUTS. Nocturia causes sleep disruption and is associated with accidental falls and higher utilization of sick days from work. Conditions that result in low volume urinary voids, high urine production at night, and/or primary sleep disturbances will cause nocturia. Overactive bladder (OAB), benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), congestive heart failure (CHF), poorly controlled diabetes mellitus (DM), peripheral edema, and obstructive sleep apnea all cause nocturia. Individual patients frequently have multiple conditions potentially related to nocturia, which highlights the need for strategies that are broad-based interventions. Treatment with an alpha-adrenergic antagonist medication (α-blockers) is a standard therapy for LUTS in men, but α-blockers offer only limited reductions in nocturia. While combinations of multiple drugs could also be employed to more successfully treat nocturia, non-drug treatments are an important option for those unwilling or unable to take additional medications.

The BEDTiMe Nocturia Study (Behavior and Exercise or Drug Trial in Men with Nocturia), is a two-site (Atlanta and Birmingham), randomized, clinical trial. The 200 male participants will be stratified by degree of nocturia and urinary flow rate and randomized to three treatment arms: 1) α-blocker therapy alone; versus 2) a standardized, multicomponent behavioral and exercise therapy (M-BET), given with placebo tablets; versus 3) combination therapy (M-BET and α-blockers). The M-BET intervention includes: training in pelvic floor muscle rehabilitation, self monitoring with bladder diaries, and teaching urge suppression and other skills to inhibit detrusor contractions; fluid management strategies; sleep hygiene strategies; and non-pharmacological management of lower extremity edema. Interventions similar to M-BET have shown reductions in nocturia in women with urge urinary incontinence (UI) that exceeded benefit from anticholinergic drug therapy. The use of this intervention in men builds upon strong pilot data from the MINIM trial (Multicomponent Interventions for Nocturia in Men; VA GRECC Pilot, VA Medical Research Services) and the ongoing study Behavioral Treatment For Overactive Bladder In Men (VA RR&D B02-2489R, Burgio, PI).

The study design allows 3 main research questions to be addressed: 1) Does M-BET reduce nocturia more than α-blockers?; 2) Does M-BET improve sleep more than α-blockers?; and 3) Will combination therapy be more effective than either treatment alone? The main outcomes will be nocturia reduction and sleep improvement at 12 weeks. Nocturia reduction will be assessed by participant completed bladder diaries and sleep improvement will be assessed by wrist-actigraph determined sleep efficiency, total sleep time, and wake time after sleep onset.

This study will yield important information related to alternative treatments of nocturia in male veterans, as well as novel information regarding the clinical importance of these nocturia reductions. Though many clinicians employ single-agent α-blockers routinely for the treatment of nocturia, few utilize multicomponent behavioral interventions or use behavioral therapy. Thus, this study has the potential to alter standards of care.