Does Fetzima cause hair loss?

Although Fetzima is not FDA approved to treat anxiety, it is sometimes used off-label for this condition. Research has suggested that Fetzima does appear to help with anxiety because an improvement was seen in anxiety symptoms monitored in tools such as the MADRS for inner tension and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD17) that were used in several clinical trials for depression. Unfortunately, most trials of Fetzima excluded people from participating if they had a comorbid anxiety disorder unless it was social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or a specific phobia, but even then the effect of Fetzima on allowable anxiety disorders was never analyzed. Continue reading

Fetzima takes approximately 60 hours or 2.5 days to leave your system following the last dose. Experts calculate this period using the half-life of a drug. The half-life of Fetzima is about 12 hours and experts agree that it takes up to 5 half-lives for a drug without active metabolites to be completely removed from the body. This calculates out to 60 hours for Fetzima. Continue reading

Research has shown that Fetzima has no overall effect on weight and does not cause weight gain or loss in studies that followed people for up to one year. Data pooled from short-term trials show an average overall weight loss of 0.59kg with Fetzima and a weight gain of 0.02kg with placebo. The number of patients who reported a more than 7% increase in their weight was 0.6% with Fetzima and 0.9% with placebo. The number of patients reporting a weight loss of more than 7% was 1.6% with Fetzima and 1% with placebo. In a 1-year, unblinded safety study, an average weight loss of 0.55kg was reported with Fetzima. Generally, there was a trend towards weight loss with Fetzima but this was not considered significant. Continue reading