Harold P. Drutz, MD, FRCS(C) Professor and Head, Section of Urogynecology Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology University of Toronto Mount Sinai Hospital Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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		Are the terms "overactive bladder" and "bladder instability" synonymous?

Jump to bottom of the page Is there a difference between overactive bladder and bladder instability? I think, unfortunately over the years, there have been a tremendous number of terms that have appeared in the urologic and the urogynecologic literature that have been used interchangeably. And they started out with, in the '60s there was the term detrusor dysergia; then there was the term of neurogenic bladder; or the non-neurogenic bladder or the unstable bladder; detrusor instability; and I think that probably overactive bladder and the unstable bladder are synonymous. And this is a condition where the bladder fires off inappropriately and it does not respond to the normal cortical control that you have, and people will have inappropriate bladder contractions. The actual etiology of this condition still remains unknown but the one thing that we do know about it is that it is a condition that does increase with people as they age, and so that aging is a factor.

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