Young men who took finasteride (Propecia) for hair loss and experienced its sexual side effects also had high rates of depressive symptoms, even after stopping the drug, a retrospective study found.
Among a group of men who developed persistent sexual dysfunction that continued for at least 3 months after finasteride was withdrawn, 75{a2ca4edd6b41bbe0aa2aee03bc791424ed51d90fd68b7905d1abaddbf6d669df} reported symptoms of depression compared with 10{a2ca4edd6b41bbe0aa2aee03bc791424ed51d90fd68b7905d1abaddbf6d669df} of controls not taking finasteride (P<0.0001), according to Michael S. Irwig, MD, of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
The symptoms were moderate-to-severe in 64{a2ca4edd6b41bbe0aa2aee03bc791424ed51d90fd68b7905d1abaddbf6d669df} of the former finasteride users and in none of the controls, Irwig reported online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
