Trospium

What is Trospium?

Trospium is a type of medicine that helps treat urinary incontinence. Urinary incontinence is when you have difficulty controlling your bladder, leading to unintentional urine leakage. It can affect people of all ages, but it’s more common among the elderly.

There are different types of urinary incontinence, including:

• stress incontinence (leakage in situations that put stress on the bladder, such as when you cough, laugh or sneeze)
• urgency incontinence (unintentional urination or leakage accompanied by, or followed by, a sudden urge)
• overflow incontinence (when you’re unable to fully empty your bladder, leading to leaks)
• total incontinence (an inability to store urine properly in your bladder, leading to constant or extremely frequent leaks).

Trospium helps to treat these types of incontinence by relaxing the muscles in your bladder, leading to reduced bladder activity and improved control.

How does Trospium work?

Trospium works by targeting the muscles in your bladder, helping them to relax. When you have incontinence, it’s often because the muscles in your bladder are overactive and squeeze too tightly, causing unexpected leaks. The reason for this is thought to be, in part, because of a chemical called acetylcholine, which contracts the bladder by binding to receptors on its muscle wall.

Trospium chloride reduces this effect by blocking the action of acetylcholine, helping to relax the muscles in your bladder.

What doses of Trospium are available?

Trospium is available in one dose of 20mg. You’ll typically start on the lower dose to see how you’re getting on with it before your dosage is reviewed.

How to use Trospium

Trospium chloride 20mg film-coated tablets should be taken before meals on an empty stomach, as high-fat foods can affect how they work. The recommended starting dose for adults is one tablet twice a day (equal to 40 mg of trospium chloride per day).

If you have severely impaired kidney function, the dose should be reduced to one tablet once a day or every other day — equal to 10mg-20mg of trospium chloride a day.

To take it, simply swallow one tablet whole, with a glass of water.

Your doctor will assess your treatment every three to six months to determine if this medicine is still suitable for you.

How long does Trospium take to work?

When you take trospium chloride, it reaches its highest levels in your blood after about four to six hours. When you take a single dose of 20 mg, about 9.6% of the drug is absorbed into your bloodstream. However, if you take trospium chloride with food, especially high-fat meals, its absorption is reduced. So it's generally recommended to take it on an empty stomach.

Here's an interesting thing: the time you take trospium chloride at can affect how your body responds to it. If you take it in the morning rather than the evening, you may experience slightly different exposure levels, meaning how much of the drug is circulating in your body.

What happens if I make a mistake using Trospium?

If you accidentally take more Trospium than you should, don't worry — there haven’t been any reported symptoms of intoxication. However, it's important to seek medical attention in case of an allergic reaction.

If you forget to take a dose, simply continue with your next scheduled dose as usual. Don’t take a double dose to make up for the one you forgot. Just stick to your regular schedule and carry on with your treatment.