April 19 2006, 4:19 pm PT | Posted in: Drugs
I have been talking propecia for about two weeks and I have been experiencing wierd side effects like anxiety attacks, feeling out of it, slight mood swings, etc. However, when I asked my doctor about it, he said that he had never heard of anything like it. There are a number of people online who have complained about similar side effects and I feel that these symptoms are a direct result of propecia. I was wondering if you had ever encountered any similar cases and if so will these side effects go away. Thanks
Finasteride blocks the conversion of testosterone to DHT. As a result, there will be a temporary increase in testosterone and changes in androgens as well which might (theoretically) produce side effects like those experienced by women with PMS. One of my patients had a real complaint like this and he was a very credible physician. When he stopped the Propecia the symptoms went away. Can hormonal imbalance affect mood swings? Possibly! Some patients have repored changes in the way they feel on Propecia and I have generally discounted these report but now I will make a note of this and watch for more patient comments and blog emails that bring this up. I aleady spoke to a Merck rep about it and hopefully the verbal report will work its way back to headquarters. If I hear more of these type of complaints, I will be more vocal on sharing this with you through this blog.
Paid advertisements (not an endorsement):
Severe anxiety, panic attacks, negative thoughts, depression, brain fog. Effected not only myself, but my family. This was not me. Only took for three months. Took much longer for side effects to subside. In my opinion a dangerous drug. May not have the same effect on everyone, but these side effects seem to be common enough to be documented and taken seriously. At this point seem to be being ignored.
Although I am not happy to hear other people experiencing side effects, I am releived its not just me. My doctor also told me he hadnt heard of such a thing. But yes, I also had extreme anxiety, depression, and even paranoia.. a week or os after I stopped it all went away.
Just be aware there are side effects not labled by the manufacturer.
I’m not realy surew where tyo start, but anxiaty has been a problum for me with this drug.
what was particulary bad was when i first startted haveing them i dident know what it was so i thought i was going crazy haha, witch made the attack even worse.
I woull get so dizzy I thought I would fall over and everything seemd to bend or leave trails.
I havent had a full on attack after realiseing what it was
but at night i do have anxiaty still.
I started to take finaseride 5mg last year. I used to choped them into 5 pieces so I would get roughly 1mg a day! However, I started to have severe panic attacks, mood swings and depression! I also experienced anxiety and confusion. Funny enough just like the others mentioned above, I also though there was something wrong with my heart, so I went and got some tests done, and the doctor said it was fine! Now im not a stupid person, with 2 degrees under my belt, I narrowed the caused down, and it was only one drug that I was taking which could have possibly caused this sudden random attacks. It was diffinatly the finasteride. THIS DRUG IS NOT SAFE AND SHOULD BE USED WITH GREAT CARE!!!
I want to ask whether these side effects will go away after stopping to use the drug???
I’m lucky to have always been an emotionally-stable person. Anxiety was never a part of my life. I had essentially never had a panic attack. I started taking generic finasteride (Finpecia, made in India as mentioned by someone else) about 18 months ago at the age of 27 and began to struggle terribly with anxiety. A mild to severe panic attack would strike each night shortly before bed and prevent me from falling asleep for usually between a half to one hour. I’d always, throughout my life to that point, fallen asleep immediately at night. Now on finasteride, I was taking shots of vodka to get over the hump that kept me from sleeping.
I never thought to associate the finasteride with the anxiety. But within the last two months I stopped taking this drug for unrelated reasons. In these months I’ve suddenly returned to peaceful sleeping. I fall asleep immediately, as I had all my life. I don’t panic before bed. It is a deep relief. Only after reading this webpage have I made the association: the finasteride was probably causing my anxiety. Nothing else about my diet, medication (I take nothing else) or lifestyle changed over these last two months.
Just as important, as I reflect on this last year and a half having read this webpage I think I can point to other emotional side effects of the finasteride. I’d always been a confident person - attractive, athletic, and academically and professionally accomplished. But in this last year and a half, I’d been distressed to find myself increasingly insecure, particularly in social situations. I’d question whether even my closest friends really valued me, were listening or cared. This insecurity was, unfortunately, a significant factor in the recent collapse of a romantic relationship in which I felt atypically insecure and unmasculine. I’ve noticed my confidence return noticeably since going off the finasteride and, as with the anxiety, only now that I’m stopping to reflect can I see the association with the drug. The perfectly synchronized timing and the stark changes are hard to question.
I’ll also add that I remember moments from this past year of questioning if I was struggling with something like early-onset dementia. I felt the foggy-headed feeling that others have described, using just those words when self-reflecting at the time.
If you’re thinking of trying finasteride, I wouldn’t necessarily warn against experimentation. It did seem to have some positive effect on my thinning vertex. Just be alert for changes in your mood. Recognize that sudden and dramatic changes may be tied to the drug and do not reflect your natural character. Then consider if the changes are something you can live with. I could not.
Good luck everyone…
Oops!… I just wanted to find oud if there was a connection between taking Fina and the way I’ve been feeling for the lost couple of months since I started taking Fina on prescription from my HT doctor. A lot of very serious side effects came up from other people in several forums, like: severe anxiety, panic attacks, feeling nervous or extremely restless without a real reason, negative thoughts, waves of depression, brain fog (not able to think clearly or to get yours thoughts alingned, unsure about yourself and others, conspiracy thoughts, wanting to cry, losing grip on things, listless, lots of things to do but nothing comes out of your hands, unmotivated, sleeplessness, no drive to get out of bed, losing sex drive, overreacting in a bad way, anger, losing your temper quickly; shouting and swearing, suicide thoughts, hughly looking up to things, even the most simplest of things, stressed out, emotionally wrecked, indifferent, realizing something is wrong with your heart….. Does this all weigh up against the benefits? Did your hair really grow back to when you did not have any hairloss? You wanted to see physical improvement (stopping hairloss), but started to suffer mentally instead? Guess what? All of the side effects disappeared after discontinuing Finasteride!!! Oops! The medical leaflet of Finasteride leaves out the most serious side effects! Imagine this; if you went to the doctor and asked for a medicine that would get you all of the bad things mentioned above, but the doctor said; beware, this can stop your hairloss as a severe and only side effect! Wouldn’t this be the exact and thru story?? Just wondering….
I’ve been taking generic Finesteride for about 5 months. I noticed out of the ordinary feelings of anxiety and stress after the first month. While it was a bit of a stressful event the anxiety response was well out of proportion to anything I’ve ever felt. At the time I didn’t chalk it down to the Finesteride. Since then the worsening feelings have progressed.
Three months later it was really bad around the xmas holidays but subsided some. Now into February, I am experiencing issues with my sleep as reported by others and another stressful event has triggered a massive response of anxiety and depression that has gone on for days. I’ve always been emotionally level and not prone to feeling stress overly much, so this is not a natural response for me.
I have stopped taking it for 4 days now and hope these feelings subside soon. It’s driving me crazy.
I had horrendous anxiety, depression, depersonalization, derealization, fatigue, disorientation, panic attacks, and a host of other physical and mental side effects from taking this. The side effects started on the 2nd day and continually got worse till i stopped on day 4. This med should be taken off the market and the company should be sued.
I too am experiencing the anxiety from this drug. I have had no sexual sides. Its mainly a social anxiety. I have always been a little socially awkward but after taking this for around 2 years now I am really bad.
I just began taking finasteride after months of coping with the onset of hairloss. I used rogaine for almost two months with little or no results and needed to do something quickly. I, like others, try to use a knife to break the tablets into 1.25 mg pieces. It was literally the day after I took my first tablet that I experienced an unusual anxiety that persisted throughout the day. I had just moved to a new city and thought it was this that was causing my stress. But as the second and third day of similar anxiety rolled around I realized that this was completely unlike me to feel like this for this amount of time. For the first time in my life I entertained what suicide would be like. I was in a total funk. To cope with it I turned to alcohol, thinking that it could take the edge off. It did for the time being but I realize that that can become a much larger problem in the long run. In the end, as many have said, it is a decision between your mental comfortability and hair loss.
My questions to this board are: Does this anxiety go away over time, perhaps as your body becomes used to the drug? … and Besides rogaine, what other options are there when your back’s against the wall and your at risk of losing all your hair within a couple years??
STAY AWAY FROM THIS DRUG. I have had several severe panic attacks after one month of taking this drug, I have never had such a thing before. Believe me the attack is a horrible feeling, it really is crippling and I can see how it has ruined so many peoples lives, I am just glad I found this out earlier rather than later…..these panic attacks are something I never wish to experience ever again, therefore as of today I am off this drug, they should not be allowed to sell this stuff! Also, I noticed problems when drinking alcolhol and being in the drug.
This drug is very dangerous- I’m a clam, sane guy but this made me anxious, depressed and provoked serious anger problems- I would flip out over the most trivial of things- it made my temper uncontrollable. I will NEVER take this drug again. The changes to the hormones are too dangerous.