DOXCAM = Doxepin + Piroxicam
Twenty-six of 32 patients have experienced virtual total remission of symptoms (81%) and six patients had significant relief (19%).
A study was done on the effectiveness of oral doxepin and piroxicam treatment for Interstitial Cystitis. The treatment was termed DOXCAM. The study looked at multi-drug oral treatment with the tricyclic antidepressant agent doxepin and the cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitor piroxicam in patients with Interstitial Cystitis (IC), who had failed standard therapy in an open, prospective, nonrandomized study.
DOXCAM treatment resulted in a significant percent decrease in pain (65% versus 21%).
A total of 37 patients diagnosed with IC received 75 mg doxepin and 40 mg piroxicam daily. Effectiveness of therapy was assessed with frequency-volume charts, an IC symptom score and with cystometry prior to treatment, 8 weeks after the start and 4 weeks after termination of drug treatment.
Study indicates that it is reasonable to consider oral treatment with DOXCAM in those patients who have failed first-line therapies.
Pain is a major feature of IC and bladder inflammation is one likely source. Equally, IC shares many features with other chronic non-cancerous visceral (the pain we feel when our internal organs are inflamed, diseased, damaged or injured) pain syndromes. The therapeutic strategies that are generally used for chronic pain form a useful approach to the treatment of symptoms in selected patients with long-standing IC. Antidepressant medications and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), especially in combination, are useful in the treatment of chronic pain.
Interstitial Cystitis is not only a disease that is difficult to diagnose but a difficult condition in which to assess therapeutic impact. Pain and discomfort in IC patients may not be identical. More research needs to continue to be funded if we are to find a cure or an effective means to treating the symptoms of IC.
Sometimes the symptoms of IC require us to be SUPER heroes.
TREATING INTERSTITIAL CYSTITIS 