generic duasteride, any feedback?

nobel victim

HI All,
I'm about to take the duasteride plunge, and would love some feedback from the duasteride users out there, what brand / flavour do you use? Are you loyal to one generic brand over another? Anyone out there use Duprost, Dutagen or Dutas?

Many thanks

NV

PS Also are there any dependable supplyers? I dont want to buy any talcum powder with blue ink in it!

Michelle

Our patients use Canada or Costco...

nobel victim

Hi Michelle,

In the end I went with United Pharmacys, who are Canadian I think, they ship to the UK and are not much more expesive than getting proscar on private perscription.

Are there any strong opinions on the strength of dose needed / recomended for duasteride in the ITHI office? I take 0.5mg per day, I was thinking about going down to 3days on 1 day off?

Hope you are all well

NV

Michelle

We typically start everyone at .05mg per day and if there are no side effects then that is where they remain for the first year. At one year we access the effects that Propecia has had on the patients in terms of hair loss. We usually only decrease the dosage if the patient is experiancing side effects.

jt

Is that .5mg per day of dutasteride or propecia? Since dutasteride has such a long half life, is it really necessary to take it every day? This is actually something I've been trying to figure out of late. Some people are claiming that dut 1-2 times per week spread out is even enough. Is that true?

Michelle

My blunder... that should say 1mg of Propecia per day. For Avodart it is .5mg a day or every other day.

nobel victim

Hi Michelle.

I was quite keen to take my dose down in the near future, do you just recomend the 1-1 1-2 regimes? Do you know if anyone has tryed something in between? I have been doing 1-1 for a few months now (5 I think) and I think duasteride does make me a bit tired, would be keen to take it down now that my last ht has had time to settle in any I should be past any shock loss....

Hope you are all doing well out there

NV

drcole

you can take dutasteride all the way down to once a week though you might want to take a full milligram once a week. it has a very long half life.

nobel victim

Thanks Dr Cole,

Is it best to work down gradually? I was planning to take a day off a week and then go to 2 days etc. I'm probaly obsessing a bit much here!

I dont suppose there is much or any evidence to show the difference between a weekly dose of 3.5mg vs 2.5mg or 1.75mg is there? Presumably I should still be better off with even a low dose of duasteride compared with Proscar though?

Hope you are all healthy & happy

NV

drcole

it is my understanding from the work done in the phase 2 clincal trials with dutasteride for hair loss that they went as high as 2.5 mg in a one time dose once a week. Of course they did not ever begin a phase 3 clincal trial to establish a dosing regimen. it is probably more important to take it every day for at least a month to establish a steady state. once you do this you can probably wean back abruptly. if it makes you feel more comfortable to drop a day each week rather than go to a once a week dosing immediately, then this is a personal choice that i would not argue against. the fact is that anything one does with dutasteride in the treatment of hair loss is an off label application meaning that there is no proven protocol or long term safety documentation.

Of interest is the scalp DHT level. Finasteride 5mg lowers scalp DHT levels by 38%; dutasteride 0.5mg by 54% and the dut. 2.5mg dose by 82%. This
helps explain the hair growth observations from the dutasteride study.
Serum levels should be suppressed by 70% with fin. vs 90% with dutasteride.

here is some other interesting information.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PDG/is_5_4/ai_n15396470/pg_1

Effective treatment of female androgenic alopecia with dutasteride
Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, Sept-Oct, 2005 by Malgorzata Olszewska, Lidia Rudnicka

Save a personal copy of this article and quickly find it again with Furl.net. It's free! Save it.
Abstract

Dihydrotestosterone is the main molecule responsible for androgenic alopecia. Finasteride, which reduces transformation of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone and decreases dihydrotestosterone activity, is approved for treatment of androgenic alopecia in men. We describe the case of a 46-year-old woman with androgenic alopecia, non-responsive to minoxidil, who initially benefited from finasteride. Due to only limited improvement after finasteride and persisting profound psychological distress resulting from androgenic alopecia, another 5-reductase inhibitor, dutasteride, was introduced. Clinical evaluation and trichogram were applied for assessment of dutasteride efficacy in this patient. Additionally, mean hair diameter was monitored by means of computer dermoscopy. After 6 months of therapy, significant improvement was observed and after 9 months the clinical diagnosis of androgenic alopecia could no longer be made in this patient. No side effects were observed. In conclusion, theoretical data and our experience in this case show that dutasteride might develop into a true alternative in treatment of androgenic alopecia.