OBJECTIVETo investigate the efficacy and safety of the alpha1-receptor inhibitor terazosin combined with chlormezanone in the treatment of chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS).

METHODSA total of 168 CPPS patients, aged 20 -50 (mean 32.9) years and with the disease course of 3 months to 7 years (mean 17 months), were equally randomized into a terazosin group (n = 58), a chlormezanone group (n = 38) and a terazosin + chlormezanone (T + C) group (n = 72), and treated accordingly for 4 weeks. All the patients were scored on NIH-CPSI (National Institute of Health-Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index) after the treatment and the therapeutic effects were compared among the three groups.

RESULTSOf the total number of patients, 159 completed the treatment and were evaluated, including 55 of the terazosin group, 35 of the chlormezanone group and 69 of the T + C group. After the treatment, the NIH-CPSI scores of the three groups decreased from 24.05 +/- 3.02 to 16.15 +/- 3.25 (mean 7.90), from 23.43 +/- 3.58 to 17.51 +/- 3.08 (mean 5.92), and from 23.93 +/- 3.30 to 15.01 +/- 3.08 (mean 8.92), respectively, with statistically significant differences from pretreatment (P < 0.05) as well as between the combined therapy group and the other two (P < 0.05). The adverse events included postural hypotension (17.1% in the terazosin group and 15.4% in the T + C group), dysspermatism (3.4% in the terazosin group only), lassitude, fatigue and anorexia (18.5% in the chlormezanone group and 12.6% in the T + C group). Nine of the patients failed to accomplish the treatment because of adverse events, 3 (5.2%) in the terazosin group, 3 (7.9%) in the chlormezanone group and 3 (12.6%) in the T + C group.

CONCLUSIONBoth terazosin and chlormezanone can relieve the symptoms in CP/CPPS patients and improve their life quality, but their combined use may produce a better efficacy than either terazosin or chlormezanone used alone.