Finasteride withdrawal induces anxiety‐like behavior and novelty avoidance in adult male rats
Lucia Cioffi, Silvia Diviccaro, Gabriela Chrostek, Francesco Paolo Ulloa Severino, Silvia Giatti, Diego Scheggia, Roberto Cosimo Melcangi
Journal of Neuroendocrinology2026
Summary (paraphrased)
Adult male rats received 20 days of finasteride and were then tested both on-drug and one month after discontinuation using open-field, elevated-plus-maze, and novelty-seeking paradigms. Effects during treatment were mild, but a clear anxiety-like phenotype — hyperactivity, reduced centre exploration, and marked avoidance of novel stimuli — emerged at withdrawal. The authors present this as an animal analogue of post-discontinuation vulnerability in PFS and argue for monitoring patients after, not just during, finasteride therapy. The study used forty rats (finasteride or vehicle) and was funded by the Post-Finasteride Syndrome Foundation; it is open access under CC-BY.
Why it’s in the corpus
The first dedicated finasteride-withdrawal animal model from the Melcangi group, showing delayed anxiety-like effects emerging after discontinuation — the closest experimental analogue of the post-drug persistence defining PFS.
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