New use for alpha blockers: benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Treatment with alpha 1-adrenergic blockers can be a reasonable alternative to surgery for patients with symptomatic benign prostatic hypertrophy. Alpha blockers may also be useful as an adjunct to finasteride in the treatment of this disorder. Pretreatment evaluation is essential to ensure that the patient does not have an infection, prostate cancer or another serious cause of the prostatic symptoms. The patient should be monitored for side effects, and the dosage should be increased slowly. Side effects can be minimized by administering the medication at night and reversed by discontinuing the drug. In more than 50 percent of patients, treatment with alpha blockers results in objective and subjective symptomatic relief.