Improvement of General Symptoms in a Chronic Psychotic Patient Treated with Finasteride: Case Report

    May 2008 in “ Pharmacopsychiatry ”
    Dagmar Koethe, Marco Bortolato, Daniele Piomelli, Frank Leweke
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    Studysummary Finasteride improved symptoms in a schizophrenia patient. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.
    This case report describes a 36-year-old teacher with schizophrenia who was treated with finasteride, a 5α-reductase inhibitor. The patient had been suffering from psychotic symptoms for eight years and had been treated with several types of neuroleptic medication without sufficient improvement. During the 24 days of finasteride medication, an improvement was observed in the patient's general and negative symptoms. No significant side effects or changes in laboratory parameters were observed. The authors suggest that 5α-reductase inhibitors and neuroactive steroids may play a role in psychosis and necessitate further studies to explore the mechanisms underlying the effects of 5α-reductase inhibitors reported in this case.
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