Depression in the News - Medication and Hair Loss

Have you ever noticed that you experience more hair loss lately or since you started taking medications? What's up with that? In an article written by Marcia Purse on About.com, several medications taken for bipolar [manic depressive disorder] may include hair loss as a side effect.

Lithium and depakote (valproate) can frequently cause hair loss. The term used for losing larger amounts of hair to fall out is alopecia. Some other drugs also cause hair to fall out:

Tegretol
Prozac
Tricyclic antidepressant (but rare)

Trileptal
Lamictal

Most rare:

Haldol
zyprexa
Risperdal
Klonopin
BuSpar

Why do medications cause the loss of hair? Normally most hair is in the growing stage. A small number of hair is in the resting, or telogen, stage. New growing hair pushes out the hair follicles in the resting stage. It is possible that some of the medications we take for bipolar cause more hair follicles to go into the resting stage. So you notice more hair coming out when you comb or brush your hair, shampoo it, or run your fingers through your hair.

About the only way to stop this problem is by reducing your medication doses or to stop taking it altogether. However, this should not be done without consulting your doctor.

Alternative treatments include taking minerals such as zinc, selenium and iron. Vitamins that may help are A, C, E, B6 and B12. Care should always be taken not to take too many vitamins or minerals since that could be dangerous.

Source: Article on About.com