Propecia and Depression

To start with, I have a long history of depression. I was greatly affected with depression as a teen, and was given a number of medications to help me to "cope" with it. At the age of 17, however, I made the decision to stop all medications. I am now 27, and I have done excellent without medications, using holistic methods of dealing with "low periods". I am physically healthy, I eat well, and I have "always" had an almost insatiable desire for sex...that is, until I first started using Propecia about a year and a half ago. I stopped taking the medication, and things "picked back up".
About a month and a half ago, however, I started back on Propecia on recomendation of my "hair-graft" doctor. I told him my fears of having a lowered libido, and he assured me that it shouldn't be a problem. Almost 2 months in, and it is obvious that it has affected me.
At about the same time that I re-started Propecia, I also began to have a lot of heavy depression feelings; anxiety, sadness, feelings of worthlessness, inability to function at work, loss of sleep, and even reoccuring thoughts of suicide. These symptoms could be coming from a variety of sources, holidays included, but this is the first time in 10 years that I have returned to therapy and have actually began taking an antidepressant (another drug with sexual side effects!) Im begining to think that Propecia might be a culprit. Did someone out there mention something about Merck being in a law-suit? I don't want to be medicated for depression, I don't want my hair to fall out, and I don't want to commit suicide (sarcasm) What options to I have?

Saw palmetto?

Have you tried saw palmetto? It's an alternative remedy that is used primarily for prostate problems in men (as of course is Proscar). One study found it as effective as Proscar I think. It is an anti-androgen and in theory could help with hair loss, though there haven't been any studies into it for that purpose as far as I know. It has the advantages of being cheap and virtually side effect free. AGA runs in my family (I'm female, 34) and when I came off the pill I started losing tonnes of hair, which has been regrowing since taking the saw palmetto. I can't of course be sure that it is due to that, as the hair loss may have been telogen effluvium, but I feel I've got nothing to lose by continuing to take it. I also think it makes my skin better which is prone to acne and greasiness. Good luck.
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P.S. My husband takes Propecia without any problems and his hair loss has been completely arrested since taking it - I've been amazed with all the stories on the forum about horrible side effects - I had no idea it could do this to some people.

propecia

I am 21 years old and have stopped taking propecia twice due to extreme anxiety. fear and depression. the only other time in my life I have experience these symptoms was when I was on Accutane as a teen and had to be pulled off. Hope this helps answer some questions.

hi fkm1, i think propecia is not matching you. First let me know, have you consult your physician before taking it? Are you sure that the doses is normal for you?Well , hair growth is important but not at the cost of depression.Your potentiality can be lost even with improper consumption of this drug.
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depressed with this

I am on my first week of propecia. I have never been depressed in my life, even when things are going bad. All of my outgoing behavior has vanished, my sexual drive is gone, and all around I don't love life like I did. This is crazy, I just dont want to loose my hair. Is it worth this? Can anyone tell me if this ever eases up?

for anyone who has or may experience mood change, anxiety on finasteride...

what you don't know is that the drug passes through the blood-brain barrier and has another action there-in to inhibit a neurosteroid called allopregnanolone, which is important to induce a feeling of relaxation on the GABA-A receptor. Feelings of fatigue, lack of vitality can also be rooted in hormonal changes. This can easily be translated into a state known as brain fog, which many people using Propecia have suffered from.

I got to admit here I came across some of the most shocking information. I have already seen people who suffer from such problems and its never a good sight to see such people who were otherwise stout and stable to be living under the mercy of others. In case there are some other ways to help reduce this problem it would be better to know.
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yeah, if my natural ways of trying to stop this 4-5month long hair loss dont work i am falling back on propecia, i just ordered a bottle. I think i am prone to mental problems, definete mood swings and depression and such. I was self medicating with weed for 10 years almost which didnt help.. lotsa his and lows. Im off now for almost a month and the hair loss hasnt stopped yet.

Now im a little worried, i was hoping propecia would work if all else fails. But mood swings and depression is something i cant deal with again.

After taking finasteride for several weeks, I seemed to notice side effects. My mood was relatively numb, somewhat anhedonic, with reduced desire to do anything that used to give me pleasure. I had the feeling that there was no point to trying to be happy because the happy feeling would inevitably end. On the other hand, I wouldn't say that I was sad, either: more neutral. Such an effect is so subjective that it is hard for me to blame one cause; it could be due to events in my life. However, I also noticed less ability to have an erection, which was unusual for me, and hadn't happened before no matter what the situation was in my environment. Therefore, I think that these are probably real effects of finasteride.

I'm a biologist, thus I searched the scientific literature and found that finasteride enters the brain and inhibits conversion of progesterone to dihydroprogesterone (DHP), which in turn is converted to tetrahydroprogesterone, or allopregnanolone. Allopregnanolone inhibits depression, thus it's possible that finasteride might induce depression. A study specifically to examine whether finasteride causes depression did find a small but significant effect, on average. I guess that many people don't notice the effect because normal variations in mood may be bigger than the effect of finasteride, or because only a subset of people may be susceptible.

These effects deserve further study. One possibility is to try to use these effects (if they do turn out not to be just "nocebo" effects) to benefit people. Reducing sex drive can be a benefit when a husband has a much stronger libido than his wife; maybe finasteride could save a marriage by bringing a couple a little closer together in terms of libido. If finasteride reduces the highs of mood, maybe it could treat bipolar disorder by smoothing the highs and lows. These may not turn out to work, but at least someone should examine them.