Are People Abusing Finasteride?

I am a pharmacist and I think someone is “playing” me to get some finasteride. He got #60 5mg tabs yesterday (a Saturday) and told me this morning that a hotel maid threw them away when she cleaned his room. I do not know the patient; he has traveled here for work. He is young and told me that he cuts the 5mg in quarters for hair loss. I told him I would contact his MD Monday morning. This bugged me all day and I can’t find much about finasteride abuse but none of it is sitting right with me.

I saw this page on your site (The Impact of Higher Doses of Propecia). Are people abusing finasteride? I don’t really want to provide this guy with more finasteride, even if I get a new prescription from his physician. I’d appreciate your help.

You may be right, and the lost prescription may be a ‘tool’ for supplying his friends with the drug. Or it could just be that a hotel maid threw out his pills. This is a judgment call for you as a pharmacist and for his doctor who would know him better.

Finasteride is not an addictive painkiller or something like that which tends to be abused.