Tolterodine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Tolterodine is a cholinergic muscarinic antagonist sold in the U.S. under 2 brand and generic names, for urinary bladder diseases and urinary incontinence. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Drug class
- Cholinergic Muscarinic Antagonist
- Treats (across its forms)
- Urinary Bladder Diseases and Urinary Incontinence
- Available as
- Tablet · Capsule, extended release
- Sold as
- 2 products — Detrol and Detrol La
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
- What the pharmacy pays
- about $7 for a 30-count supply — not your price
How Detrol is dosed
From the FDA label for Detrol (application NDA020771). Other tolterodine products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
The initial recommended dose of DETROL Tablets is 2 mg twice daily. The dose may be lowered to 1 mg twice daily based on individual response and tolerability. For patients with significantly reduced hepatic or renal function or who are currently taking drugs that are potent inhibitors of CYP3A4, the recommended dose of DETROL is 1 mg twice daily (see PRECAUTIONS, General , PRECAUTIONS, Reduced Hepatic and Renal Function , and PRECAUTIONS, Drug Interactions ).
Everything below is the FDA label for Detrol (tablet). Tolterodine is also sold as capsule, extended release, and those are different medicines to take — follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
Detrol side effects
The Phase 2 and 3 clinical trial program for DETROL Tablets included 3071 patients who were treated with DETROL (N=2133) or placebo (N=938). The patients were treated with 1, 2, 4, or 8 mg/day for up to 12 months. No differences in the safety profile of tolterodine were identified based on age, gender, race, or metabolism. The data described below reflect exposure to DETROL 2 mg bid in 986 patients and to placebo in 683 patients exposed for 12 weeks in five Phase 3, controlled clinical studies. Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice. The adverse reaction information from clinical trials does, however, provide a basis for identifying the adverse events that appear to be related to drug use and approximating rates. Sixty-six percent of patients receiving DETROL 2 mg bid reported adverse events versus 56% of placebo patients. The most common adverse events reported by patients receiving DETROL were dry mouth, headache, constipation, vertigo/dizziness, and abdominal pain. Dry mouth, constipation, abnormal vision (accommodation abnormalities), urinary retention, and xerophthalmia are expected side effects of antimuscarinic agents. Dry mouth was the most…
Who shouldn’t take Detrol
DETROL Tablets are contraindicated in patients with urinary retention, gastric retention, or uncontrolled narrow-angle glaucoma. DETROL is also contraindicated in patients who have demonstrated hypersensitivity to the drug or its ingredients, or to fesoterodine fumarate extended-release tablets which, like DETROL, are metabolized to 5-hydroxymethyl tolterodine.
Detrol drug interactions
CYP3A4 Inhibitors Ketoconazole, an inhibitor of the drug metabolizing enzyme CYP3A4, significantly increased plasma concentrations of tolterodine when coadministered to subjects who were poor metabolizers (see CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY, Variability in Metabolism and Drug-Drug Interactions ). For patients receiving ketoconazole or other potent CYP3A4 inhibitors such as other azole antifungals (e.g., itraconazole, miconazole) or macrolide antibiotics (e.g., erythromycin, clarithromycin) or cyclosporine or vinblastine, the recommended dose of DETROL is 1 mg twice daily (see DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION ).
Every tolterodine product we track (2)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
| # | Drug | Rating | Type | Form | Generic? | Pharmacy pays | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Tablet | Generic | $7 | View → | |
| 2 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Capsule | Generic | $7 | View → |
What tolterodine pills look like
Imprint codes, colour and shape from the FDA’s labelling data. Match the imprint on your pill — or search any imprint.
Tolterodine recalls
From the FDA Enforcement database. A recall covers specific lots — not the drug as a whole.
Can you crush or split tolterodine?
At least one tolterodineproduct is labelled to be swallowed whole — crushing an extended-release tablet releases the whole day’s dose at once. Which applies depends on the form you were given.
What each tolterodine label says about crushing, splitting and chewingHow long tolterodine keeps
No tolterodine label we read sets a separate limit for after opening, but they do specify how it must be stored — and the stability behind any date assumes those conditions.
Does tolterodine expire? The in-use limits and storage rules from its labelsTolterodine and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for tolterodine: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadNo information is available on the use of tolterodine during breastfeeding. Long-term use of tolterodine might reduce milk production or milk letdown. During long-term use, observe for signs of decreased lactation (e.g., insatiety, poor weight gain).
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised December 15, 2024. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about tolterodine
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 3,084 reports naming tolterodine, and the FDA flagged 67% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- fall156 reports
- fatigue145 reports
- nausea145 reports
- headache136 reports
- dizziness133 reports
- diarrhoea128 reports
- constipation105 reports
- asthenia100 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean tolterodine caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 26, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
What is Detrol?
DETROL Tablets contain tolterodine tartrate. The active moiety, tolterodine, is a muscarinic receptor antagonist.
What kind of drug is tolterodine?
The FDA classifies tolterodine as a cholinergic muscarinic antagonist. These drugs block muscarinic receptors, the docking sites for the nerve signal acetylcholine. By preventing acetylcholine from acting, they calm the 'rest-and-digest' nervous system, which can dry secretions, relax airway and bladder muscles, and speed up the heart, depending on the drug. If you are checking whether it is safe to combine with something else, the class is what matters — two drugs from the same class usually should not be stacked.
Can you take tolterodine with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run tolterodine against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What brand names is tolterodine sold under?
We track 2 tolterodine-containing products in the U.S.: Detrol and Detrol La. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.
What forms does tolterodine come in?
Across the brands we track, tolterodine is currently marketed as tablet and capsule, extended release, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic tolterodine?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled tolterodine product. That does not always mean none exists — it means none appears under a generic name in the FDA data we track. Ask your pharmacist.
Has tolterodine been recalled?
The FDA's Enforcement database lists 1 recall record whose product description mentions tolterodine. The most recent: Tolterodine Tartrate Extended-Release Capsules (Mar 4, 2025). A recall applies to specific lots, not to the drug as a whole — check the record for the affected lot numbers.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Tolterodine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/tolterodine
- MLA
- “Tolterodine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/tolterodine.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for tolterodine on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.