Does Wellbutrin Cause Hair Loss? Things to Know

Does Wellbutrin cause hair loss? Here’s what you should know.

Daily hair loss of a few hairs is normal and expected, but anything more than that might be cause for concern. Fortunately, this hair thinning is probably only transient. Wellbutrin hair loss is an infrequent and typically short-lived occurrence.

Do you want to know if Wellbutrin is one of the antidepressants linked to hair loss? To learn whether Wellbutrin and hair loss are related, continue reading.

What is Wellbutrin?

Wellbutrin (bupropion) is a commonly prescribed medication. It is used for clinical depression as well as smoking cessation (under the brand name Zyban).

Wellbutrin has a lower risk of sexual side effects such as erectile dysfunction, lack of desire, or difficulty with arousal or orgasm than some other antidepressants.

Does Wellbutrin Cause Hair Loss?

Wellbutrin is a prescription drug used to treat symptoms of depressive disorder and seasonal affective disorder (SAD), as well as to aid smokers in giving up. Bipolar disorder is also occasionally treated with it.

The side effects of Wellbutrin do not include hair loss, as you may have noticed. Do you now have the all-clear, along with your hair follicles? Not quite.

A comparative retrospective cohort study looked at different antidepressants to see if they might increase the risk of hair loss.

The research concluded that bupropion was associated with a higher risk of hair loss than certain other antidepressants — namely fluoxetine and paroxetine, both of which are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a different kind of antidepressant than Wellbutrin.

Despite these results, you should be aware that hair loss is extremely uncommon in bupropion users.

The FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) lists hair thinning as an infrequent side effect. This means that between one out of 100 and one out of 1,000 patients who take this medication experience it.

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Is Wellbutrin Hair Loss Permanent?

In most cases, Wellbutrin hair loss is not permanent.

Episodes of excessive hair loss typically last less than six months and are frequently much shorter. They are commonly brought on by sudden, intense stress on your body. This can result from a disease, psychological strain, or in this case, a new medication.

Another possibility is that the stress happens later (i.e., when you start taking a new medication) and when you first notice the hair loss.

A cause that occurred one to six months prior to the shedding being observed is typically revealed by looking at your medical history. It may be challenging to make the connection between the delay and your hair loss, though (Hughes, 2021).

The good news is that sudden hair loss will typically stop in due course, regardless of the cause. Your hair will resume growing once your body has had a chance to recover from the recent stress or change.

How to Stop Wellbutrin Hair Loss?

If hair loss and Wellbutrin are part of your life, there are also treatment options available. For advice on how to manage your symptoms, it is best to consult a healthcare professional.

Find some of the strategies for addressing this undesirable effect and promoting regrowth below.

Topical Medication

Minoxidil is a topical treatment that comes in liquid and foam formulas. It doesn’t require a prescription and is FDA-approved to treat hair loss.

This medication is thought to work by stimulating hair follicles to enter the growth phase. Additionally, your scalp’s blood flow is increased, which brings more nutrients and may encourage hair growth there.

Hair Loss Shampoo

Use a thickening shampoo since you have to wash your hair anyway. Hims offers a thickening shampoo formulated with saw palmetto, a natural ingredient thought to reduce hair loss.

Most saw palmetto research has focused on its use for androgenic alopecia rather than telogen effluvium. While more data is needed, the little bit that’s out there has found that topical saw palmetto did increase terminal hair count for men with androgenic alopecia.

Biotin

The hair gummies that are all over Instagram, have you seen them? Many contain biotin, a B vitamin. Naturally found in foods like eggs, milk and bananas, biotin is thought to contribute to healthy hair.

In addition to getting biotin through a healthy diet, you can also take it in supplement form. One study done on women with thinning hair found that supplements containing biotin can help encourage hair regrowth — but we’ll add the caveat that these supplements contained other ingredients as well, making it hard to say which ones really worked. 

Other Side Effects of Wellbutrin

In addition to the uncommon side effect of hair loss, there are some common side effects of Wellbutrin.

You are more likely to lose weight while taking Wellbutrin than gain it, unlike most antidepressants.

Most antidepressants carry the risk of side effects, and you will need to work with your doctor to balance these side effects with the benefits you get from the medication

Final Words: Does Wellbutrin Cause Hair Loss

Wellbutrin is a prescription drug used to treat depression and seasonal affective disorder and for smoking cessation.

There have been studies that suggest the bupropion in the Wellbutrin formulation may occasionally result in alopecia.

To stop and reverse the hair loss that Wellbutrin causes, you can stop taking it.

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