Hair Loss from Common Medications

Many of the questions I get each day are specifically asking about whether this drug or that drug could be the cause of hair loss. While there are many drugs that have hair loss listed as a potential side effect, it should be noted that looking at the drug as the cause of your thinning hair may not be the actual reason for the balding you’ve experienced. As genetic hair loss can skip generations, you need to take a good look at your family history (on either side of the family) to give a possible indication of where your hair loss originates. That being said, some of the common drug families may cause hair thinning. Below you can find an incomplete list of medications that may cause hair thinning and hair loss:

• Anti-thyroid medications (carbimazole, propylthiouracil)
• Most of anticancer medications
• Blood-thinner (warfarin)
• Some lipid lowering medicaitons (clofibrate, bezafibrate)
• Anti-acne drugs (isotertinoin)
• Some blood pressure medications, such as ACE inhibitors (captopril, enalapril, lisinopril)
• Gout medication (allopurinol)
• Antimalarial medication (chloroquine)
• Drugs for epilepsy (valproate sodium, vigabatrin)
• Parkinson’s disease medications (pramipexole, bromocriptine)

As I said, this is by no means a complete listing. In the literature of many drugs, hair loss is included as a side effect. It is so common, I wonder if it isn’t put in by their lawyers rather than their scientists.