2011 ISHRS Meeting Review, Part 6 – Finasteride
Note: The annual meeting of hair surgeons was in held in Alaska this past week. The following review is very selective and is biased by the things that were interesting to me and what I (Dr. Rassman) thought could be interesting to the readers.
This is part 6. More to come…
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Does finasteride induce mood and other psychiatric changes?
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A case report and literature review showed a connection between finasteride and mood changes. In one case presented, a patient suffered from severe disabling mood changes on finasteride, which ceased within a week after stopping the medication. After a short time period he restarted finasteride, and the mood changes returned within a few days. Other cases were reviewed with similar problems. There is little doubt that in some patients, mood changes and other psychiatric problems appeared with the use of finasteride.
I believe that these case reports are the exception to what we commonly see and that finasteride is generally safe, but if a patient feels that they have changes in their personality or mood since the drug was started or if a family member sees changes in their mental state, they should meet with their doctor to discuss the appropriateness of their continued use of the drug.
Dr Rassman,
I reported these symptoms on HL forums back in early 2003, before it was widely reported, so I know it wasn’t planted by fear.
Anyway — It seems like every fall my scalp gets itchy and my hairloss progresses a bit.
I keep some finasteride handy and take them for a few weeks when my scalp flares up. This has worked for me so far.
Obviously the hormonal changes involved with the drug will cause mood swings just like a ptegnant woman or woman on birth control.
That some scary stuff about finasteride but I can tell you from my experience that I haven’t had any long term side effects. I had an initial decrease in sexual desire that went away after a couple of weeks and then almost a year a later a reoccurence that also went away after a couple of weeks.