Lower Urinary Tract Disorders as Adverse Drug Reactions—A Literature Review

Abstract

A potential complication of pharmacotherapy for a given patient is the possibility of various side effects of drugs, which are manifested in many ways and constitute iatrogenic causes of diseases. Among the systemic side effects of drugs, there are also those involving the urinary tract, although these are less reported in the literature. The use of numerous drugs—especially of anticholinergics or drugs with anticholinergic potential, opioid analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antidepressants, first-generation antipsychotics (classic neuroleptics) and selected cardiovascular drugs (beta-blockers, thiazides potassium-sparing diuretics, statins), as well as others—may increase the risk of developing urological disorders, such as urinary retention or incontinence, urinary tract infections, urolithiasis, erectile dysfunction in men and retroperitoneal fibrosis. The purpose of this paper is to characterise the abovementioned drug-induced disorders of the lower urinary tract on the basis of a non-systematic literature review.