UPOINT System for Prostatitis Treatment

Medically reviewed by Dr. Paul Song M.D

Article at a Glance

The UPOINT system for prostatitis treatment helps traditional doctors take a more holistic approach to treating chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS). Conventional treatment might involve prescribing antibiotics and painkillers along with drugs for urinary symptoms, but when doctors use the UPOINT system for prostatitis treatment, they use a clinical phenotyping system. This system looks at the individual components of the patient’s symptoms and uses a simple algorithm to help doctors determine the specific therapies that target treatment towards those specific areas. The treatments may include traditional medications or natural and alternative therapies, depending on the type of symptoms. This helps the patient avoid unnecessary medications and get a more specific and individualized treatment program in place.

The UPOINT system for prostatitis treatment differs from traditional medicine is that it recognizes that most CPPS symptoms and causes are actually unrelated to the prostate itself. These other physical and mental health problems in the body can manifest themselves as chronic pain in the pelvic area. When using UPOINT, the doctor will cover certain points to diagnose the chronic symptoms and then recommend treatment specifically for those symptoms on an individual basis. The six domains are classified as the following:

1 Urinary

2 Psychosocial

3 Organ Specific (prostate or bladder involvement)

4 Infection

5 Neurologic/Systemic

6 Tenderness of Skeletal Muscles

The above domains of the UPOINT system represent different classifications. Doctors classify patients as a YES or NO for each domain. For example, a patient classified as a YES for Urinary might be prescribed antimuscarinic drugs, alpha blockers, and/or dietary changes because those treatments have been shown to work for Urinary symptoms. Patients classified as a NO for Urinary, and a YES for another domain, would have different types of treatments. So not only does UPOINT help men find treatments that may work for their specific symptoms, this system can also prevent men from wasting their time and money on treatments that are unlikely to work and may even cause unwanted side effects (such as taking antibiotics when there is in fact no infection present). Some of the more common treatments recommended for the following classifications are as follows:

• Urinary: antimuscarinic drugs, alpha blockers, and dietary changes
• Psychosocial: counseling, antidepressants, cognitive behavioral therapy, and stress reduction
• Organ Specific: IC/PBS therapies and CPPS prostate therapies, including quercetin, pollen, and phytotherapy
• Infection: antibiotics
• Neurologic/Systemic: neuroleptic drugs and stress reduction
• Tenderness of skeletal muscles: pelvic floor physical therapy, quercetin

How Is the UPOINT System for Prostatitis Treatment Different?

UPOINT differs from other common prostatitis treatment methods because it:

• • recommends antibiotics only for documented infections;
  • includes palpating the pelvic floor muscles to check for and diagnose muscle spasm and trigger points;
  • takes the patient’s mental health into consideration, asking about depression and feelings of hopelessness, recommending psychological help when needed;
  • only uses drugs like alpha blockers and antimuscarinics in cases with documented urinary symptoms;
  • considers systemic conditions associated with pelvic pain that are beyond the prostate itself (such as irritable bowel);
  • considers the use of other organ specific therapies; and
  • recommends natural prostatitis treatments, pecifically, phytotherapy and quercetin for the organ specific and pelvic floor spasms domains

One of the more important things about the UPOINT system for prostatitis treatment (setting it apart from traditional treatment models) is that this system recognizes that the original trigger or injury that leads to the prostatitis pain and symptoms can be completely unrelated to the prostate itself. The UPOINT system also recognizes that there may be several different problems causing the same case of prostatitis, and it aims to help doctors and patients customize a multimodal treatment approach that attempts to heal all of those causes.

For example, an initial allergy or injury can lead to inflammation in the pelvic area. That unmanaged inflammation, can lead to spasm in the bladder neck or pelvic floor. As if having that spasm were not bad enough for the patient, that spasm can then lead to neuropathy and chronic pain. The frustration of ongoing chronic pain can affect a man’s psychological health, leading to feelings of depression, stress, hopelessness, and other psychological effects. This stress, in turn, can cause more pelvic tension and make the pelvic floor tension feel even worse. That could mean treating allergies, inflammation, spasm, pain, stress, and various psychological components. That is why it is important to approach chronic prostatitis with a “whole body” approach. This allows men and their doctors to determine the original cause of the pain and tension that are manifesting in the pelvic region.

Keep in mind that determining all the possible causes of pelvic pain and prostatitis symptoms means applying a number of treatments. Approaching CPPS with this multimodal approach allows patients to address every one of these many different layers and treat the CPPS causes from a variety of angles to find successful pain relief. Many patients using UPOINT or holistic programs (like NPAT) employ several different natural (such as phytotherapy) and alternative treatments to treat their prostatitis symptoms and finally end their suffering.