Singapore HSA: Safety Alert for Finasteride and Potential Risk of Suicidal iIdeation

The Singapore Health Sciences Authority (HSA) published a Safety Alert for Finasteride on 30-August-2022.

Suicidal ideation is a known adverse event (AE) observed with the use of finasteride post-market and is listed in the local package inserts of finasteride-containing products.

A recent pharmacovigilance study by Nguyen et al. suggested that younger patients with alopecia (baldness) may be more vulnerable to the risk of suicidality, although this association might be biased by stimulated reporting.

To date, HSA has received one report of a 19-year-old male who developed severe mental depression with suicidal tendencies after one month’s use of finasteride 1mg. The patient recovered fully several weeks after stopping the medication.

The local package inserts of finasteride-containing products currently list depression and suicidal ideation as psychiatric AEs observed post-market.

HSA’s advisory on Finasteride says that, Mood alterations including depression and, less frequently, suicidal ideation have been reported in patients treated with finasteride. Healthcare professionals are advised to consider the potential risk of psychological AEs when assessing the benefit-risk of finasteride for their patients.

Though I don't post on safety alerts, I know most of my friends have been using Finasteride and have noticed depression, hence this is to create awareness of the use of Finasteride and reach out to your physician immediately if you feel depressed.

To know more about the Pharmacovigilance study of suicidality with finasteride, click this LINK