Propecia brainfog issues,help please.

[Mental Norman]

I possibly have some brain fog related side effects from the drug(difficulty concentrating/tongue tied/etc) as well as some mild depression that I felt dissipated after missing one dose. Is something like this even possible given the amount of time propecia stays in the body?According to most accounts it takes atleast several weeks to a few months for people to start improving due to propecia sides.

If its not even feasible to think sides could possibly go away after a mere one dose than the answer to this is obvious then.

advice needed!

 

[Mew]

Is something like this even possible given the amount of time propecia stays in the body

Although Finasteride has a 6-8hr half-life, DHT can take more than a week to return to baseline after a single dose, due to potency of the inhibitor.

Thus it is entirely feasible that a single dose could cause these issues. I wish more people would educate themselves about what it is they are taking.

Missing a single dose is not likely to have much, if any effect in reversing "side effects".

http://books.google.com/books?id=v0QrC_ ... #PPA401,M1

 

[medmax84]

Small effect unless you're predisposed. Continue for a few days and see if it dissipates. I am a med student and therefore need to study and concentrate frequently. I have had no problems in that department, and apart from some normal times to get depressed (breakups, sickness, deaths) I have had no anxiety or depressive problems. That doesn't mean they don't exist, just that I have not noticed any obvious difference.

Here is an article that found a small effect on anxiety and depression. I'll link and provide the discussion/conclusion.

http://ezproxy.pcom.edu:2442/content/pdf/1472-6904-6-7.pdf (PDF)
http://ezproxy.pcom.edu:2442/1472-6904/6/7 (HTML)

Discussion

Testosterone, the main androgenic hormone, is converted by 5alpha-reductase to DHT in many tissues, which binds much more avidly with androgen receptor. Two isoforms of 5alpha-reductase with distinct tissue distribution have been cloned: 5alpha-reductase type1 and type2. 5alpha-reductase type1 is widely distributed in the body, whereas in androgen dependent structures such as prostate, and hair follicles of scalp DHT is mainly formed by 5 alpha-reductase type2. However, according to some studies this isoform is present in many other organs, such as pyramidal cells of cerebral cortex, hepatocytes and bile duct cells. [18,19].

After binding to the androgen receptor, DHT results in stimulation of transcription and protein synthesis. In spite of genomic response, the existence of cell membrane sex steroid receptors was also suggested recently. These receptors exist specially in the brain, and provoke rapid responses [20].

5alpha-reductase is a critical enzyme in the conversion of several steroids such as testosterone, progesterone, aldosterone and corticosterone in the brain. This enzyme converts testosterone to the most natural potent androgen DHT, and also it acts an important role in conversion of progesterone to dihhydroprogesterone (DHP). DHP is further converted to allopregnanolone (5alpha, 3alpha-tetrahydroprogesterone) by 3alpha-HSD [9,21]. Allopregnanolone is a modulator of gamma amino butyric acid type A receptor (GABA-A), and increases chloride conductance. This neurosteroid has been found to exert anti-convulsant, anesthetic and anxiolytic effects [22-24]. Moreover, change in the levels of allopregnanolone is found to be associated with depressive disorders. [25,26]

Our results are in agreement with the past published reports [15], and indicate that finasteride might induce depressive symptoms. The 95% confidence interval, for the difference in the means of the BDI scores, was ranging from 0.34 to 1.04. This shows that the overall change induced by finasteride is minimal, but statistically significant. Anxiety scores were also increased, but the difference was not significant.

A decline in serum DHT level occurs after finasteride administration [27]. This may contribute to finasteride induced depression. Some studies have been shown that serum DHT level, which is in equilibrium with the brain [28], is inversely associated with depression. A study by Barrett-Connor E. et al. showed that BDI scores were inversely associated with bioavailable testosterone and DHT level [29]. Furthermore, it was found that DHT had anti-depressant effects on behavior of male rats and its replacement in castrated rats was able to partially decrease the immobility behavior, which is indicative of depression [30].

Finasteride induced psychiatric dysfunction can also be attributed to its inhibitory effect on androgen and steroid 5alpha-reduction in the brain. Animal studies suggest that finasteride has inhibitory effects on 5alpha-reduction of testosterone and progesterone in the brain and inhibits the formation of allopregnanolone [31,32]. Allopregnanolone has an important role in depressive disorders [26]. In 1998 Romeo E. et al, revealed that episodes of unipolar major depressive disorder in men is associated with a decline in the plasma concentrations of allopregnanolone [25]. Furthermore, a study carried out by Uzunova V. et al. showed that CSF levels of allopregnanolone were significantly lower in depressed patients, and there was negative correlation between allopregnanolone levels in CSF and HAM-D scores. [33].

Since finasteride is a potent 5AR type2 inhibitor and the predominant isoform of the enzyme in human brain is 5AR type1 [34,35], some points should be noted concerning finasteride inhibitory effect on brain steroid metabolism. (i) Although finasteride is a potent 5AR type2 inhibitor, but it has also some inhibitory effects on 5AR type1 [36]. (ii) Finasteride administration in humans has been reported to be associated with some behavioral and mental disorders related to low levels of allopregnanolone in the brain [37]. This may also improve the concept of brain allopregnanolone suppression by finasteride in humans.

However, from the current study, it can not be concluded that the pathophysiology of finasteride-induced mood disorder is attributable to any of the mentioned material.

We couldn't find any significant change in the anxiety scores before and after the treatment (p = 0.061). According to the anxiolytic effects of allopregnanolone and testosterone [38-40], it seems that further investigations with a larger sample size are necessary to determine whether finasteride administration is associated with anxiety.

Finasteride associated side effects were reported by 9.4% of patients in this study. In all cases, the reported side effect was transient and partial libido loss. This side effect was reported by several studies and in different incidences [3,41]. Despite the fact that male sexual function and behavior is related to sex hormone metabolism [42], we couldn't find any relation between libido loss and BDI nor HADS score, before and after the treatment. This may be caused by the sample size effect as there were just 12 subjects in side effect positive group.

Some limitations concerning the study should be raised. The present study didn't have any control group. Excluding the subjects with definitely diagnosed other diseases or positive history of mood disorder, might result in missing some individuals with a high risk for behavioral changes. However, as a preliminary study, we had to exclude these patients to avoid any confounding effects on the results.
Conclusion

In conclusion, this preliminary study suggests that finasteride might induce depressive symptoms. Although our data suggest a slight change, the side effect should be considered specially when the medication is prescribed for patients, who are more susceptible for it.

Finally, we recommend that further studies should be performed to elucidate behavioral effects of finasteride in higher doses and in high risk groups such as elderly patients.

Mew, this is HONESTLY the most incriminating article I could find. There are other mild ones, but I am trying to downplay some of these concerns by finding the absolute worst articles possible to show that even those are not that ominous.

If you're predisposed to depression (ie is there a history in your family, do you feel as though you become easily discouraged and "down") then it is a factor.

 

[Mew]

My point in my original post was that the drug is very powerful and despite it's short half life, inhibits DHT for days after just a single dose. Just trying to clarify dosing for the original poster.

Other depression-related articles:
http://www.propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38