Please help! Identifying whether finasteride is causing anxiety

[corza000]

Hi all,

ive written in the past about my story but I haven’t got to the bottom of how to resolve my issues.

long story short: I’ve been on finasteride for 10 years. It has been great. No known sides. Although anxiety has crept up in recent years. The anxiety is now unmanageable.

this brings me to my question. How do I know if the finasteride is causing the anxiety? If I drop finasteride and lose my hair I’m going to be a mess mentally. But if it’s the cause of the anxiety I might be OK.

from previous threads I suspect if it is finasteride causing the anxiety then it would be linked to neurosteroids such as allopregnanolone and GABA.

could I test this through a blood test? There must be a way to ascertain that finasteride is or isn’t the causation before I throw away all my hair in hope.

 

[Selb]

Stop finasteride for a bit, it’ll leave your system in a few days, maybe a week. Your hair won’t suddenly fall off. If you feel like your anxiety is better that may be it. But you also might only think it is if it’s nocebo

 

[he_who_dares_wins]

Yeah, or you can lower the dose and/or frequency and see how it goes.
Just the thought that finasteride MIGHT be causing you anxiety is, enough to cause anxiety and not the drug itself. So make sure to get that out of the way.

 

[corza000]

Thanks I’ve had breaks and cut back in the past. Not for a very long time. At most 3 weeks. I have t noticed a dramatic difference. But it’s hard to monitor as anxiety spells can be sporadic.