The Risk of Psychiatric Disorders in Finasteride Users with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia and Androgenetic Alopecia: A Population-Based Case-Control Study

    August 2024 in “ Australasian Journal of Dermatology ”
    Anna Lyakhovitsky, Boaz Amichai, Eran Galili, Arnon D. Cohen, Khalaf Kridin, Zvi Segal, Doron Netzer
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    TLDR Finasteride users have a very low risk of mental health issues, but those with hair loss may have slightly higher anxiety and depression.
    This large-scale population-based case-control study investigated the association between finasteride therapy for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and androgenetic alopecia (AGA) and the emergence of psychiatric disorders. The study included 307 men with BPH and 23,227 men with AGA, along with their respective control groups. Results showed that 2.3% of BPH patients experienced mental health outcomes, with no significant increase compared to controls. However, AGA patients had slightly higher rates of anxiety and depression compared to controls (0.6% vs. 0.4% and 0.5% vs. 0.4%, respectively). Multivariate regression models identified finasteride as a risk factor for anxiety (OR 1.449) and depression (OR 1.439) in AGA patients. Overall, finasteride users had a very low rate of adverse mental health effects, with no increase in psychological sequelae in BPH patients and a slight increase in anxiety and depression in AGA patients.
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