Post-finasteride syndrome: An emerging clinical problem

Alterations of gut microbiota composition in post-finasteride patients: a pilot study

“…Indeed, as recently observed, alterations of gut microbiome have been reported in depressive disorders [41][42][43][44][45] as well as in circadian and sleep disturbance [46][47][48]. In addition, as mentioned above, PFS reported persistent sexual impairment, including feeling a lack of connection between the brain and penis, loss of libido and sex drive, difficulty in achieving an erection, genital numbness, or paresthesia [1,2]. Indeed, as demonstrated in two different studies, PFS patients showed erectile dysfunction [13,14].…”

“…Bray-Curtis dissimilarity (c) showed a significant clustering (p = 0.001) for healthy and PFS sub-clusters PFS patients. Thus, gut microbiota composition is altered in a court of patients who, despite finasteride suspension, report a persistent symptomatology, such as depression, sleep disturbance, and sexual dysfunction [1,2]. As often observed, depression and insomnia are frequently associated [39,40].…”

“…Although not validated, it represents the only available tool to systematically collect information on patient conditions and to assess the features of PFS. The same questionnaire was used in our previous observations on PFS patients [1,2,14,21,22]. The questionnaire was filled by the patient himself only after the description of the study design to the patient, in order to limit selection and recall bias.…”

“…The post-finasteride syndrome (PFS) is an emerging clinical problem observed in a subset of patients treated with finasteride for androgenetic alopecia. These patients, despite the suspension of treatment, reported a variety of persistent symptoms, including sexual dysfunction, psychological complaints, muscular problems, physical alterations, and cognitive complaints [1,2]. Examples of them are feeling a lack of connection between the brain and penis, loss of libido and sexual drive, difficulty in achieving erection, genital numbness or paresthesia, depression, reduction in self-confidence, decreased initiative and difficulty in concentration, forgetfulness or loss of short-term memory, irritability, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, panic attacks, sleep problems, muscular stiffness and cramps, tremors, chronic fatigue, joint pain, and muscular ache [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

Allopregnanolone (1938–2019): A trajectory of 80 years of outstanding scientific achievements

“…The disparity between these two outcomes depends on allopregnanolone administration pattern and provides insights for the therapeutic development of allopregnanolone and its antagonists for AD through clinical trials. Diviccaro and colleagues (2020) focused on adverse events using finasteride and dutasteride, approved for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia and androgenetic alopecia. Adverse effects in men during treatment, such as sexual dysfunction and mood alteration are part of post-finasteride syndrome (PFS) symptoms that persist despite drug withdrawal.…”