Information from a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Adelaide has found a link between middle-aged women suffering from depression and urinary incontinence. However, researchers are also saying that there is help for those women who want it.
The study was conducted with researchers analyzing data collected from depressed middle-aged (aged 43-65) women that suffered from urinary incontinence. What the study’s lead researcher, Jody Avery, found was that the middle-aged women suffering from incontinence were at an increased rate of suffering from depression as well. She will present the results of her findings during World Continence Week to be held on June 24 to June 30. Avery believes that when young women develop urinary incontinence, it affects their self-esteem, but when older women develop it, it is harder on them.
“Women with both incontinence and depression scored lower in all areas of quality of life because of the impact of incontinence on their physical wellbeing,” says Avery, a Ph.D. student and Senior Research Associate with the University’s School of Population Health and School of Medicine. “Key issues for younger women affected by incontinence are family, sexual relationships and sport and leisure activities.”
Urinary incontinence is a common condition that affects nearly 35 percent of women worldwide. The condition is caused by menopause and childbirth, and is often treated with transvaginal mesh device implants. Depression is generally treated with dangerous antidepressant medications like Paxil, which has been linked to serious adverse side effects including violent and suicidal thoughts and behavior as well as birth defects in babies exposed to the drug in-utero. The birth defects linked to Paxil use include PPHN, spina bifida, neural tube defects, oral clefts and heart, lung and brain defects. As for the vaginal mesh treatment for incontinence, numerous lawsuits have been filed against the manufacturers of different devices because they are also linked to complications.
