Medications & Medical Treatments

Many different medications and medical treatments can cause either temporary or permanent hair loss:

Cancer treatments are perhaps most known for this. Chemotherapy drugs, including antineoplastics like bleomycin and vinblastine, often cause temporary loss, while radiation therapy can cause either permanent or temporary loss, depending on the location and dose of the treatment.

Immunosuppressive medications, like methotrexate, which are used to treat autoimmune diseases like lupus and arthritis or to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs, also often cause of temporary hair loss.

Other medicinal causes of what is usually just temporary hair loss include:

• The use or discontinued use of certain steroids and hormone regulators like birth control pills.
• Psychiatric drugs like lithium, which are used to treat depression and bipolar disease
• Drugs used to treat heart problems and high blood pressure
• Anticoagulants and blood thinners
• Potent skin and acne medications like isotretinoin
• Diet pills that contain amphetamines

Some preventive vaccinations, particularly the hepatitis B vaccine, are also associated with hair loss. And hair loss can even be caused by too much of certain vitamins, particularly vitamin A.

Information on this page, provided as a service by Peggy Knight Solutions, draws upon information from the following sources: the American Academy of Dermatology, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, particularly the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, and the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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