Men's Health

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Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome - pharmacological treatment

There is a substantial list of medications used to treat this disorder. Some of them are:

• Quercetin has shown effective in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in chronic prostatitis using 500 mg twice a day for 4 weeks Subsequent studies showed that quercetin, a mast cell inhibitor, reduces inflammation and oxidative stress in the prostate.
• Pollen extract (Cernilton) has also been shown effective in randomized placebo controlled trials.
• At least one study suggests that multi-modal therapy (aimed at different pathways such as inflammation and neuromuscular dysfunction simultaneously) is better long term than monotherapy.
• Commonly used therapies that have not been properly evaluated in clinical trials although there is supportive anecdotal evidence are dietary modification, gabapentin, benzodiazepines and amitriptyline.

Therapies shown to be ineffective by randomized placebo/sham controlled trials:


• Levaquin - antibiotics are generally not recommended. Any improvement on antibiotics is likely to be evanescent, and due to the anti-inflammatory effects of the antibiotic.
• Alpha blockers for 6 weeks or less. The effectiveness of alpha blockers (tamsulosin, alfuzosin) is questionable in men with CPPS. A 2006 meta analysis found that they are moderately beneficial when the duration of therapy was at least 3 months. However a 2004 trial found no benefit from alfuzosin during 6 weeks of treatment and a 2008 clinical trial of alfuzosin found it was no better than placebo for treating CPPS in treatment naive recently diagnosed men.
• Transurethral needle ablation of the prostate (TUNA)

Other articles from the section: Prostatitis

Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome - prevalence

The annual prevalence in the general population of chronic pelvic pain syndrome is 0.5%. 38% of primary care providers, when presented with a vignette of a man with CPPS, indicate that they have never seen such a patient. However, the overall prevalence of symptoms suggestive of CP/CPPS is 6.3%. The role of the prostate was questoned in the etiology of CP/CPPS when both men and women in the general population were tested using the (1) National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI) - with the female homolog of each male anatomical term use on ...

Section: Prostatitis

Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome - physical and psychological therapy

For chronic nonbacterial prostatitis (Cat III), also known as CP/CPPS, which makes up the majority of men diagnosed with "prostatitis", a treatment called the "Wise-Anderson Protocol" (aka the "Stanford Protocol"), has recently been published. This is a combination of:

Section: Prostatitis

Chronic bacterial prostatitis - prognosis

  Over time, the relapse rate is high, exceeding 50%. A 2007 study showed that repeated courses of combination antibiotics may eradicate infection in 83.9% of patients with clinical remission extending throughout a follow-up period of 30 months for 94% of these patients.    

Section: Prostatitis