The Role of Emotional Condition in Patients With Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Performing Uroflowmetry

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of the general and uroflowmetry (UF)-related anxiety in patients performing UF, and to assess whether anxiety may affect patient's micturition at UF. Materials and Methods: This prospective study recruited candidates to UF. Recorded data were: demographics, lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and anxiety questionnaires (IPSS, ICIQ-FLUTS, GAD-7, APAIS-M), UF parameters, linker-type scale for UF satisfaction/reproducibility and discomfort. Results: We enrolled 167 patients (non-naïve 59.3%). One hundred twenty-five were men. General anxiety was found in 55.3% of patients (63.2% naïve), and UF-related anxiety in 41.3% (46.5% non-naïve). No significantly different rate of anxiety was found between naïve and non-naïve patients. A significant difference was found between IPSS total score in patients without anxiety (10.9 ± 6.4) and subjects with anxiety (16.9 ± 7.3; P < 0001). According to the ICIQ-FLUTS questionnaire, only the subscore F was significantly greater in women with a high level of general and UF-related anxiety (7.8 ± 6.1 vs 12 ± 4.9; P <.001). A low UF satisfaction/reproducibility was reported by 27.5% of patients, in 21.7% of subjects with general anxiety, and 36.6% of patients with UF-related anxiety. High discomfort was recorded in 58.1% of patients. Anxiety affected women twice more than men, and patients with high anxiety had worse urinary symptoms. Non-naïve anxious patients had lower reproducibility of micturition and higher discomfort than naïve anxious candidates to UF. Conclusion: Several patients showed high general and UF-related anxiety at UF, had worse subjective feelings about the reproducibility of their habitual micturition patterns. In anxious patients, knowledge of UF did not avoid a lower reproducibility of micturition, nor a more considerable discomfort.