A FURTHER CLINICAL STUDY OF ANABOLIC STEROIDS IN INCONTINENCE

Inability to restrain bodily discharges is a problem of both individual and social concern. In the mental institution the incontinent patient presents a severe nursing problem. After preliminary encouraging results obtained in a previous clinical trial, and confirmed by other authors, a further 33-week clinical study was conducted on 16 male patients with bladder and/or bowel incontinence with a new anabolic steroid (Dianabol). The dramatic results of continence in all 16 patients whose physical and mental resources were of the lowest, encourages us to recommend the anabolic androgensteroids in bladder and bowel incontinence for clinical trials on patients both in and outside the "back wards" of a mental institution.

Further studies of the hypothesized pharmacodynamic effect of the anabolic male steroids on the incontinent patient are warranted. These should include physiological experiments, double-blind studies on patients with various physical and mental conditions and causes of incontinence, and studies in different environmental and cultural settings. There should be emphasis on possible psychosociological and placebo factors.