Understanding Psychiatric Incontinence: Causes, Symptoms & Management

Millions of people in the United States experience incontinence. The condition is classified into types according to how the leakage occurs. These types include overflow, stress and psychiatric.

Psychiatric Incontinence

• Psychiatric incontinence occurs when a person suffers from a mental condition that causes incontinence. This occurs in the elderly when dementia prevents a person from realizing he is voiding urine, according to "Handbook of Geriatric Assessment."

Symptoms

• A person with psychiatric incontinence will empty his bladder while watching television or performing some other activity, rather than in the bathroom.

Causes

• Dementia is the mental condition that causes psychiatric incontinence. It can be caused by Alzheimer's disease or a stroke.

Treatment

• Timed voiding can help manage psychiatric incontinence. Urinating on a schedule so the bladder does not fill can help prevent large spills of urine, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Considerations

• Psychiatric incontinence can be managed through the use of catheters to empty the bladder or absorbent pads that catch voided urine. Women are at a slightly higher risk of developing the conditions, like Alzheimer's, that can cause psychiatric incontinence.