Objective: The aim of our study was to assess the comparative patient satisfaction and side-effects of the currently prescribed drugs – tamsulosin and silodosin for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).
Methods: A prospective study was conducted in a total of 110 BPH patients from the Department of Urology for a period of 6 months. Fifty-five patients in each group received silodosin 8 mg or tamsulosin 0.4 mg once daily. Data were collected using a suitably designed pro forma and the patient satisfaction was assessed with patient’s perception of study medication (PPSM) scale. International prostate symptom score (IPSS) was used for assessing the severity of symptoms.
Results: The current study found that the treatment had a significant effect on improving scores of PPSM and IPSS at which all changes were significant at p<0.01 (paired t-test). An independent t-test showed that silodosin group had a greater improvement in PPSM scores – PPSM total by 40.4%, PPSM global by 43.7%, and PPSM pain by 0.39% which was supported by corresponding decline in IPSS scores. The side effects reported for tamsulosin were headache (5.5%), dizziness (5.5%), dry mouth (3.6%), and postural hypotension (14.4%) and those reported for silodosin were myalgia (5.5%), dizziness (7.3%), diarrhea (1.8%), and postural hypotension (10.9%).
Conclusion: Patient satisfaction was improved by both the alpha blockers but silodosin showed a significantly greater increase in patient satisfaction than tamsulosin. Thus, silodosin is the better drug of choice
