Self-management is just as effective as drug therapy for treating many lower urinary tract symptoms in older men, Australian researchers have found.

And when it is not enough, adding strategies, such as fluid management and bladder training, to alpha blockers or finasteride provides extra benefit over medication alone, they say.

The study’s author, GP academic Professor Paul Glasziou, said the findings were reassuring for GPs.

“There are a lot of non-drug therapies which, if they’re shown to be helpful, GPs need to know about,” the director of the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare at Bond University, Gold Coast, said.