Double-blind study of imipramine and placebo for incontinence due to bladder instability.

We compared imipramine with placebo in a double-blind study in Leicester, in elderly incontinent patients. The results revealed that 14 out of 19 patients became dry after imipramine and six out of 14 after placebo treatment. Patients on imipramine also tended to become drier sooner. However, these results must only be taken as preliminary evidence of drug effect since statistical analysis between drug and placebo did not reach significance. The results do, however, confirm the great benefit of habit-retraining which all patients received. It is now our practice to try this alone first, and to reserve drugs for slow or nonresponders, because of their possible adverse effects.