Parkinson's drug linked to hair loss in women

NEW YORK, Mar 11 (Reuters Health) -

Hair loss caused by a drug for treating Parkinson's disease may be reversed by switching to a different medication, a new report demonstrates.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological disorder that causes tremor, muscle rigidity and movement problems.

Drugs to restore diminishing levels of the brain chemical dopamine are the main treatment for the condition.

Reversible hair loss has been documented in patients treated with bromocriptine, pergolide or levodopa, but not in association with other dopamine-related drugs, according to Drs. Rowena E. Tabamo and Alessandro Di Rocco of the Beth Israel Medical Center-Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

In the March issue of the journal Neurology, the researchers describe the cases of two female Parkinson's disease patients who experienced hair loss soon after starting treatment with the drug pramipexole.

One 66-year-old woman noted hair loss less than 2 months after she began taking pramipexole. After other possible causes for her hair loss were ruled out, the woman stopped taking the drug, and her hair loss stopped within 2 weeks. One month later, new hair growth returned.

The second patient, aged 68, began losing her hair about one month after receiving an increased dosage of pramipexole, which she had been taking for about a year. Doctors then switched her medication to ropinirole.

The hair loss continued, so her medication was switched again to a combination of carbidopa and levodopa. Within one week her hair loss stopped and within 6 months some of her hair grew back, the authors report.

"Although the use of pramipexole was associated with (hair loss) in both patients, the effect of ropinirole on hair loss or growth is less clear," Tabamo and Di Rocco write.

The investigators note that both women were taking the drug amantadine, and that their hair loss could be a result of this drug's interaction with the Parkinson's drugs.

"For some patients, hair loss is unacceptable and detracts substantially from their quality of life," Di Rocco explained in a prepared statement from the journal. "In one case, the patient was distraught and refused to leave her house without wearing a hat," he added.

"If treating physicians can help patients deal with (hair loss) and other cosmetic symptoms resulting from therapy, without compromising the quality of their treatment, we can do a lot toward helping them maintain a high quality of life throughout their illness," according to Di Rocco.

SOURCE: Neurology 2002;58:829-830.