Dutasteride

Treatment
has no image.

Currently 3.13/5
1
2
3
4
5

Rating: 3.1/5 (8 votes cast)

The good: Finasteride 2.0!

The bad: Probably an overkill.

Bottom Line: Wait for more studies to flesh out and continue taking Finasteride instead.

Dutasteride (Avodart, Avidart, Avolve, Duagen, Dutas, Dutagen, Duprost) is a commercially marketed antiandrogen, DHT inhibitor and 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor. It is taken orally.

Dutasteride is marketed and developed by GlaxoSmithKline and is the successor to Finasteride. It was hailed as being superior for inhibiting both isoforms of 5-alpha reductase, compared to Finasteride, which only inhibits one. This momentum seems to be lost amidst very mixed results:

Dutasteride has only found FDA approval for benign prostatic hyperplasia.
Dutasteride has not shown to be more effective than Finasteride at benign prostatic hyperplasia.
GlaxoSmithKline withdrew Dutasteride from the original hairloss trials in 2002.
Dutasteride blocks more type two 5-alpha reductase than Finasteride, but also blocks type one 5-alpha reductase, which appears to be unnecessary to hairloss and possibly harmful.

It isn't known why the original trials were called off, but there has been speculation on multiple fronts-- industry sources cite marketing problems since Dutasteride hasn't been shown to outperform Finasteride, firsthand accounts from off-label users suggest Dutasteride may even be detrimental to particular qualities of hair (Particularly frontal hairloss).

In December 2006, Dutasteride was placed into a new Phase III, six month study in Korea to test the safety, tolerability and effectiveness of a once-daily dose of dutasteride (0.5mg) for the treatment of hairloss in the vertex region of the scalp (types IIIv, IV and V on the Hamilton-Norwood scale).^[1] The future impact that this study will have on the FDA's approval or disapproval of Dutasteride for the treatment of male pattern baldness in the United States is yet to be determined.

[edit] Side Effects

Dutasteride does block more of the 5-alpha reductase type that contributes to hairloss (and thus DHT), but it appears that the other blocked type of 5-alpha reductase is not only unnecessary, but may also be harmful to longterm health, as it naturally appears in the brain and the body's deeper tissues.

Side effects may otherwise be comparable to Finasteride and general DHT Inhibition.