Lowering My Dosage — 1mg Finasteride Every Other Day or 0.5mg Daily?
Hello Doctor, I was on 1mg Fin for 4 months, was very happy with my hair results, however I have developed anxiety and slight depression.
I asked my doctor whether I could lower the dosage and she said I could do 1.0mg pill every other day. She did not explain why.
Are there any studies that show that 1mg every other day is better than 0.5 mg every day? thank you!
I don’t know of a study that compares 1mg every other day to 0.5mg daily.
Logically speaking, Propecia’s half life is about 4 to 6 hours. So by the next day the medication is almost all gone from your blood stream. Thus, the medication is intended for daily use. Taking 0.5mg daily would seem more of a steady state than taking 1mg every other day. Practically speaking, I would think 0.5mg daily is easier to remember as a routine in your compliance than taking it every other day.
Your doctor may have her own reasons behind the recommendation, and after all this is a “practice” of medicine. I would speak to your prescribing doctor on this issue and make sure both of you are on the same page before making any changes to your medication. She might not have explained why she suggested the every other day dosing, but it doesn’t hurt to ask her.
As Dr R implies, use of 1 mg every other day is not consistent with the known pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the drug. While large studies have not been conducted with either 1 mg every other day vs 0.5 mg daily, I would also prefer the 0.5 mg daily among the two options. I also agree that the best way to understand the physicians rationale and why she did not suggest 0.5 mg daily is to ask her. Then a more informed decision can be made.
Dr. Rassman:
You often state that tissue fixation is the only stage where finasteride actually impacts balding.
As such, wouldn’t taking a larger dose every other day lead to a greater amount of finasteride actually reaching your follicles? Since a certain percentage is inactivated by liver enzymes and 5-alpha-reductase in irrelevant tissues, and the finasteride is circulating at higher concentrations for a longer period of time?