TLDR Quetiapine may cause hair loss, a side effect not widely recognized before.
The document reports the first published cases of alopecia (hair loss) associated with the use of quetiapine, an atypical antipsychotic medication. The New Zealand Intensive Medicines Monitoring Programme (IMMP) database included two case reports suggesting a causal relationship between quetiapine and alopecia. Additionally, the World Health Organization international database contained 15 case reports of alopecia associated with quetiapine, with seven providing sufficient information for causality assessment. One of these cases, involving a 69-year-old female patient from Germany, reported recovery from alopecia after quetiapine withdrawal. No previously published reports of alopecia associated with quetiapine were identified. The document concludes that there is evidence supporting an association between quetiapine and alopecia, which is a potentially distressing side effect not previously described in the literature.
8 citations
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November 2002 in “The Canadian journal of psychiatry/Canadian journal of psychiatry” Increasing olanzapine caused hair loss in a woman, which stopped after changing medication.
63 citations
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March 2000 in “Annals of clinical psychiatry” Some psychiatric medications can cause hair loss, but it usually grows back after adjusting the medication.
147 citations
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April 1994 in “Drug Safety” Some drugs can cause hair loss or increase hair growth, but these effects are usually reversible when the drug is stopped.
January 2025 in “Scholars Journal of Medical Case Reports” Quetiapine may cause hair loss.
3 citations
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February 2014 in “Anadolu psikiyatri dergisi” A teenager's hair loss was caused by the drug quetiapine but improved after stopping the medication.
11 citations
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February 2007 in “Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing” Combining mood stabilizers with antipsychotics is more effective for treating children with bipolar disorder than using mood stabilizers alone.
1 citations
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July 2015 in “The European research journal” Stopping aripiprazole can reverse its side effect of hair loss.
64 citations
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January 2002 in “American Journal of Clinical Dermatology” Some patients taking antipsychotic medications experience skin reactions, ranging from mild to severe.
