Do Antidepressants Cause Hair Loss?

[Baldingat22]

I’m 22 and just started Paxil but you hear so much about SSRIs causing hair loss. My doctor wants me on it for a year. Will it make me bald? I am a Norwood 3 I’d say but just bald at temples. I do take fin daily so don’t know if that will combat this. Just curious thank you!

[mmokin]

1 hour ago, Baldingat22 said:

I’m 22 and just started Paxil but you hear so much about SSRIs causing hair loss. My doctor wants me on it for a year. Will it make me bald? I am a Norwood 3 I’d say but just bald at temples. I do take fin daily so don’t know if that will combat this. Just curious thank you!

i dont think the hair loss is permanent also different ssris cause different amounts of hairloss im on zoloft and havent had a problem but im also not that prone to hairloss

[RabbitHare]

it made mine fall out...I cant remember which one,...it was so long ago and it happened right after a transplant..They didnt know it was the bad transplant or the meds...Recently i was on some bipolar meds and same thing so i stopped for good

[Baldingat22]

53 minutes ago, RabbitHare said:

it made mine fall out...I cant remember which one,...it was so long ago and it happened right after a transplant..They didnt know it was the bad transplant or the meds...Recently i was on some bipolar meds and same thing so i stopped for good

Hmm ya I’m on Paxil which is an ssri. I’m worried I’ll further progress

[RabbitHare]

Now i recall, It was depacote and nobody even told me it could do that...I will no longer take any of those as they all seem to make me shed..and they make you fat...Id rather be thin with hair and depresses of and on than happy all the time with no hair at 250 pounds...

[mmokin]

7 minutes ago, Baldingat22 said:

Hmm ya I’m on Paxil which is an ssri. I’m worried I’ll further progress

i think prozac is the most hair friendly but dont qoute me on that, but dude trust me the hair loss from anti depressants is most likely temporary shedding and the hair comes back after a month if you stay on it, stay on fin or whatever hair loss prevention routine your on and you'll be ok. but stay on medication if you need it, its not worth worrying about the potential small shedding if it means risking your mental health

[Baldingat22]

11 minutes ago, mmokin said:

i think prozac is the most hair friendly but dont qoute me on that, but dude trust me the hair loss from anti depressants is most likely temporary shedding and the hair comes back after a month if you stay on it, stay on fin or whatever hair loss prevention routine your on and you'll be ok. but stay on medication if you need it, its not worth worrying about the potential small shedding if it means risking your mental health

True thank you. Ya I probably shouldn’t care because mental health is very important but my hair loss is part of my mental health so I’d hate ruining that further. If it doesn’t make me lose hair I’m okay gaining a couple pounds but further balding with Paroxetine(Paxil) I’d be pretty sad

[HappyMan2021]

Drugs and alcohol do not cause hair loss. 

[RabbitHare]

Thats the problem.. the medication is not for a month...its supposed to be forever.. And Im willing to bet if anyone having a reaction like I did, id be bald with no chance of ever gaining the hair back...I have found other ways non-medication for this...And yes drugs can cause hair loss..Look up potential side effects of depacote...

[Baldingat22]

19 minutes ago, SadMan2021 said:

Drugs and alcohol do not cause hair loss. 

Really?

[Britanium]

As someone that is a Mental Health Nurse and happens to have Bi-Polar I can say that yes many medications can cause hair loss. 
I have personally had experience of taking many different anti-depressants as well as various anti-psychotics and experienced some hair loss with quite a few of them. 
From a professional point of view I would say that your mental health is more important than the possible risk of some hair loss. But on the flip side I understand what it’s like to be losing hair and wanting to do everything to keep it. 
And it’s important to talk to your own Dr and/or your mental health team. As quite a lot of those medications will have contra-indications with Fin.

On a personal note I took care of my mental health and don’t take Fin. My well being was more important. With regards to losing hair i opted for the hair transplant approach (5 and counting) 

It’s difficult to get the balance right. But finding the right medication is a task in itself. 
Something which has occurred for myself is that my hair has actually improved since stopping my medication a year ago. And that’s after being on it for over a decade ! 

[Britanium]

4 minutes ago, Baldingat22 said:

Really?

Prescribed medication absolutely does and can cause hair loss. Could be temporary or maybe longer term. No way of knowing until you start each one. And it’s not exactly the most common side effects for many of them.

[HappyMan2021]

33 minutes ago, Baldingat22 said:

Really?

Go to your local skid row and observe all the homeless addicts with amazing (albeit dirty) hair. Walk into any AA or NA group - with people who have experienced decades of drug or alcohol abuse and other rough living - and observe all the people with zero hair loss. 

[mmokin]

3 minutes ago, SadMan2021 said:

Go to your local skid row and observe all the homeless addicts with amazing (albeit dirty) hair. Walk into any AA or NA group - with people who have experienced decades of drug or alcohol abuse and other rough living - and observe all the people with zero hair loss. 

its true, i cant buy the whole stress causes hair loss thing when i run into people who have been sleeping rough for the past 10 years with nw0 and high density hair

[JDEE0]

You're both right - drugs, alcohol, a poor unhealthy lifestyle or whatever else won't cause or exasperate hair loss from MPB. As has been pointed out, you can walk through the rougher area's of your city and see lots of homeless people with thick manes, just as you can also see lots of extremely unhealthy/overweight people in everyday life with great hair.

However, the key is that we're talking MPB; a number of prescription drugs do have hair loss as a listed side effect and can cause such, it's just not androgen related or dependent. Drugs such as corticosteroids, blood thinners (like heparin) and even SSRI's as mentioned in the title of this thread all have some evidence that they cause hair loss. They obviously do so via a different mechanism of action than androgen related gene expression and it's downstream effects, and I would imagine most of it is recoverable, but I really don't know enough about these sorts of causes of hair loss to comment.

[Baldingat22]

1 hour ago, JC71 said:

As someone that is a Mental Health Nurse and happens to have Bi-Polar I can say that yes many medications can cause hair loss. 
I have personally had experience of taking many different anti-depressants as well as various anti-psychotics and experienced some hair loss with quite a few of them. 
From a professional point of view I would say that your mental health is more important than the possible risk of some hair loss. But on the flip side I understand what it’s like to be losing hair and wanting to do everything to keep it. 
And it’s important to talk to your own Dr and/or your mental health team. As quite a lot of those medications will have contra-indications with Fin.

On a personal note I took care of my mental health and don’t take Fin. My well being was more important. With regards to losing hair i opted for the hair transplant approach (5 and counting) 

It’s difficult to get the balance right. But finding the right medication is a task in itself. 
Something which has occurred for myself is that my hair has actually improved since stopping my medication a year ago. And that’s after being on it for over a decade ! 

From your knowledge in the area do Paxil cause hair loss?

[Britanium]

2 minutes ago, Baldingat22 said:

From your knowledge in the area do Paxil cause hair loss?

Yes It can, but that’s not to say it’s going to be the case for yourself. Some people choose to take sertraline instead. 

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, SadMan2021 said:

Go to your local skid row and observe all the homeless addicts with amazing (albeit dirty) hair. Walk into any AA or NA group - with people who have experienced decades of drug or alcohol abuse and other rough living - and observe all the people with zero hair loss. 

This is an absolute nonsense comment, genetic hair loss can strike anyone of any race, color, creed, and socioeconomic status.

[mmokin]

3 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

This is an absolute nonsense comment, genetic hair loss can strike anyone of any race, color, creed, and socioeconomic status.

He means to say being under constant stress doesnt make everyone go bald or even most people to show the main factor of hair loss is genetic response to androgens

[HappyMan2021]

3 hours ago, mmokin said:

He means to say being under constant stress doesnt make everyone go bald or even most people to show the main factor of hair loss is genetic response to androgens

thanks for this. nothing I said had to do with the "race, color, creed, and socioeconomic status." lol

 

[Baldingat22]

Ya well I just don’t want to bald further lol but I guess time will tell