DO NOT TAKE LEXAPRO!

[LISSY2008]

I took lexapro for about 6 mo.. and had shoulder length hair.. I didnt know that the side effect of lexapro is PATTERENED BALDNESS.. It doesnt state this on the package and I didnt find this out until after my hair FELL OUT!!  I am currently trying to sue over this. DONT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU.. I took myself off this medication and I suffered even more side effects.. I would tell anyone to never take antidepressants.. I will never again touch them.. I am paying with the humilation of hairloss.

[JKJ]

i'm so sorry this happened to you...i used to take wellbutrin and began to lose my hair....the person who prescribed it to me didn't believe that it was the cause and i also stopped taking it and began taking centrum silver to help my hair (it does help a little).

i also refuse to take any ADs due to all of the side effects that either docs don't tell you about or just don't know.

take good care of yourself.

[el_dave]

Sure am sorry that happened to you. I have to say, that "medication" stuff does seem to be overused. I was in the nut house recently, and they had those folks medicated to a point where they just shuffled around from task to task, not really there at all. I was pretending to take the stuff and then getting rid of it, and golly gee, they decided I was sane anyway. Released me with a prescription for the miracle drug, a prescription for yet another sleeping pill, to go along with the prescriptions the VA psych writes me for different pills. I don't take those either.

A couple of years ago I was told by doctors that I had high blood pressure and cholesterol, and they wrote prescriptions. Have to take these every day, they said. I did take 'em for a few months, but then stopped. The Ol' Lady was making me go to checkups and things like that, and I went, and they said both the cholesterol level and blood pressure were being controlled most excellently by the medications. They still say that today. Only thing is, it's been like a year and a half since I touched the medications. What's controlling the bp and chol is a change of diet and some weight loss.

In the same vein, I spent years and years and years unable to sleep without a sleep "cocktail" that essentially knocked me out. Now I seem to sleep all night every night, merely by fixing up a major personal issue.

I think there are probably people out there who really need antidepressants, but I'd wager the majority of the folks on them would be better served by fixing the issues troubling them than masking their pain with a drug.

You seem to agree.. I'm just sorry you had to learn in such a terrible way. I wish you the very best of luck with your lawsuit, you certainly deserve some serious compensation.

[wickedwanderer]

Lexapro has helped a lot of people and unfortunately you are not one that was able to tolerate side effects.  Stop trying to scare people.

[wait2long]

i have to agree with you...

LISSY - are you sure your hair loss isnt due to alopecia?

i have taken just about every antidepressant out there with not much relief, some from cymbalta...i have never heard of hair loss being a side effect, is it really?  just curious...

[JKJ]

lissy is right.....hair loss & baldness is a listed side effect of lexapro.  it's not one of the common side effects, but it is one nonetheless....one that you find by looking on the internet; nothing any doc will tell you about that is for sure!

[Hensley258]

That is the first time I have ever heard of Lexapro causing hair loss. Are you sure it was the Lexapro?

I have been taking 30Mgs a day of Lexapro for two years now and my hair is super thick.
I've never lost any hair from this. I'm 38 years old now and I am getting a couple grey hairs now, but I figure that's just age catching up with me.

[JKJ]

here is the website with the info on lexapro....it talks about hair loss:

http://www.prozactruth.com/lexapro.htm

[xanweaner]

I think that most of you would agree that we all react differently to drugs - both in a positive and negative way. Even if there's less than a 1% incidence rate, the point is that there are people who make up this very small percentage. When I've reacted negatively to meds and my Dr.'s said to me how rare it was, I would always point out to them, "I'm the 1%"....so if Lissy is reporting her experience, let's not minimize it.

She obviously is suffering with this.....how terrible....and if she feels strongly about this, I'd suggest she check out some of the lawsuits that Dr. Peter Breggin has been an expert witness in Just google him - you will be shocked by some of the reactions that people have had while taking SSRI's. Again, we're talking about the minority, but many times these poor patients are the silent minority and have to suffer with no one giving their complaints any credibility.

Drugs many times cause hair loss...this is not that rare of an event. For those of us who haven't suffered this side effect, we're quite lucky.