How stress and anxiety affect overactive bladder
Official title: Stress and Anxiety Effects on Overactive Bladder: A Controlled Study
Funded at Vanderbilt University Medical Center · NIH-11143758 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project explores whether stress and anxiety make overactive bladder symptoms worse and lead people with OAB to use coping behaviors that reduce quality of life.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Vanderbilt University Medical Center NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Nashville, United States) |
| Project start | September 15, 2021 |
| Project end | July 31, 2026 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $397,233 |
| NIH project number | 5R01DK129624-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11143758 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults who experience overactive bladder symptoms (urgency, frequency, or urgency urinary incontinence) and who notice stress or anxiety around their bladder problems.
✕Less likely to help
People without OAB or whose urinary symptoms are caused primarily by a clear neurological disease, infection, or structural abnormality may not benefit from this stress-focused work.
What this research studies
If you have overactive bladder (OAB), the team will look at how feelings of stress and anxiety relate to urgency, incontinence episodes, and the ways people cope (like avoiding travel or restricting fluids). The work uses controlled, carefully measured tests of stress and compares symptoms, physiological responses, and coping behaviors in people with OAB. The goal is to connect short-term stress reactions and longer-term anxiety with the bladder symptoms and life changes people report. Findings will be used to better understand why some people change their behavior in ways that worsen quality of life.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this research could help personalize treatments and self-management strategies to reduce anxiety-driven symptoms and improve daily life for people with OAB.
How similar studies have gone: Small human studies and animal experiments suggest stress can worsen bladder urgency and that people with OAB may have greater stress reactivity, but tightly controlled human studies are still limited.
Where this research is happening
-
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Sebesta, Elisabeth M — Vanderbilt University Medical Center
- Study coordinator: Sebesta, Elisabeth M
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.