Vesigard 7.5 mg is a prescription medicine used to treat an overactive bladder that causes symptoms such as urge urinary incontinence, urgency, and frequency. It effectively treats symptoms in adults, including the urge to rush to the toilet, frequent visits to the washroom, or leaking or wetting accidents. Other causes of these symptoms, such as pregnancy, urinary tract infections, and various other conditions in the urinary tract, should be excluded by your doctor before this treatment is started. Vesigard belongs to a class of drugs known as antimuscarinics, believed to reduce abnormal bladder constriction.

Follow your doctor's instructions carefully. Do not take more than the recommended amount. You should check with your doctor if you have any doubts regarding the dosage of the medicine. The recommended initial dose for the elderly is 7.5 mg a day. After two weeks of initiating treatment, patients should be reassessed for effectiveness and safety. Your doctor may increase the dose for patients who can tolerate the drug but require greater symptom relief. Take the tablet once daily. Swallow the tablet with a glass of water, do not chew or crush the pill. You can take the tablet before or after consuming food.  

Vesigard extended-release tablets are contraindicated in patients with or at risk of gastric retention, urinary retention, uncontrolled narrow-angle glaucoma, and hypersensitivity to the active ingredient or any of its inactive components. 

Darifenacin (the main active salt of Vesigard) should be used with caution in patients with the following conditions:

  — Risk of urinary retention in patients with or without the pre-existence of this condition

  — Bladder outflow obstruction

  — Severe constipation

  — Gastrointestinal obstructive diseases such as pyloric stenosis 

  — Risk of decreased gastrointestinal motility 

As with other antimuscarinics, patients should be advised to discontinue Vesigard and take immediate medical help if they develop oedema of the tongue or oropharynx or trouble breathing. No reports of the effects of Darifenacin on the ability to drive and operate machines have been performed. However, Vesigard may produce dizziness and blurred vision. Patients are instructed not to drive, use machines, or perform other tasks which require your complete attention if they experience these side effects. Caution should be taken when prescribing antimuscarinics to patients with pre-existing heart conditions. Darifenacin tablets should be used during pregnancy only if the benefits to the mother are higher than the potential risk. The antimuscarinic drug is excreted into breast milk; therefore, caution should be taken when given to a nursing woman. The safety and effectiveness of this medicine in pediatric patients have not been established.    

Most side effects reported in the clinical trials were mild or moderate and mostly occurred during the initial two weeks of the treatment. The most frequently reported side effects were dry mouth and constipation. Other side effects include face oedema, hypertension, flatulence, mouth ulceration, vomiting, insomnia, and abnormal thinking. Weight gain, sinusitis, nasal dryness, increased cough, visual impairment, erectile dysfunction, urinary retention, urinary tract disorder, vaginitis, bladder pain, dry skin, rash, pruritis and hyperhidrosis.