Prospective, randomized, double-blind trial shows aerobic exercise is a valid treatment option for chronic prostatitis

Richard Berger

This article has no abstract so we have provided the first paragraph of the full text.

Male CPPS (often misleadingly called prostatitis) is a common disorder, and is associated with poor quality of life and sexual dysfunction. Antibiotics are the first-line treatment, but patients often fail to respond altogether or relapse after an initial response. By definition, CPPS is not associated with demonstrable infection. There is a growing sentiment that CPPS might be related to other chronic pain syndromes, such as back pain and fibromyalgia. Giubilei et al. present a randomized, blinded trial of aerobic exercise versus non-aerobic stretching in the treatment of men with CPPS. Both groups improved significantly, but the aerobic group improved significantly more than the stretching group, especially in the areas of pain and quality of life. After completion of the study at 18 weeks, NIH-CPSI scores had decreased by 7.4 6.2 points in the aerobic group, whereas scores in the stretching group dropped by 4.8 4.4 points. The urinary scores did not respond to either treatment. The study was remarkable in that both groups were blinded to the other arm of the study, and each group had similar contact with the investigators, suggesting that psychological factors, or 'TLC' from the investigators, did not affect the response. The methods of exercise are well explained and should be easy for practitioners to reproduce. The authors noted that symptoms became worse when aerobic exercise began, so encouragement and regimen modification might be necessary. The study is limited by the relatively small sample size, lack of long-term follow-up and the fact that it reflects experience at only one center.

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