Am J Psychiatry 158:1159-1160, July 2001
© 2001 American Psychiatric
Association
Venlafaxine-Induced Hair
Loss
WILLIAM PITCHOT,
M.D., PH.D., and MARC ANSSEAU, M.D., PH.D.
Liège,
Belgium
To the Editor: We report on a depressed woman who complained of
hair loss
during treatment with venlafaxine, a serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake
inhibitor.
Ms. A was a 50-year-old woman who had suffered from a severe major
depressive episode of a melancholic subtype. She did not fulfill DSM-IV
criteria for any other axis I or personality disorder. She was medically
healthy and did not take any medications. Her general practitioner began
treatment with venlafaxine, 75 mg/day. After 15 days, her dose of venlafaxine
was increased to 150 mg/day. Four weeks later, Ms. A was much better. However,
she reported moderate side effects, such as nausea and somnolence, that began
after 2 days of treatment. After 2 weeks, she also noticed hair
loss when she brushed or washed her
hair. Ms. A considered hair
loss a moderate but disturbing side effect and
decided to discontinue the treatment after 3 months. Her hair
loss stopped completely 1 month later.
Ten months later, Ms. A developed a new major depressive episode. She began
taking venlafaxine again; this was associated with a complete remission of the
previous depressive episode. She started taking venlafaxine at a mean dose of
75 mg/day and then increased it to 150 mg/day after 2 weeks. Three weeks
later, Ms. A decided to stop taking the medication again because of the
hair loss
that she had observed 10 days after beginning treatment. A complete remission
was achieved with sertraline, 50 mg/day, without hair
loss, which completely stopped 3 weeks after the
discontinuation of venlafaxine.
Our patient had never experienced hair
loss before and had no history of
endocrine illness. Hair loss
has been reported with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors such
as fluoxetine (1,
2),
sertraline (3),
and paroxetine (4),
but it is considered a rare side effect. To our knowledge, this is
the first report of hair
loss associated with venlafaxine therapy.
Clinicians should be aware of this surprising and potentially
distressing side effect.
References
- Jenike MA: Severe hair
loss associated with fluoxetine use (letter). Am
J Psychiatry 1991; 148:392
- Ogilvie AD: Hair
loss during fluoxetine treatment (letter).
Lancet 1993; 342:1423
- Bourgeois JA: Two cases of hair
loss after sertraline use (letter). J Clin
Psychopharmacol 1996; 16:91-92[CrossRef][Medline]
- Zalsman G, Sever J, Munitz H: Hair
loss associated with paroxetine treatment: a
case report. Clin Neuropharmacol 1999; 22:246-247[Medline]
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