Recent evidence has shown that [finasteride], albeit generally well tolerated, can induce untoward psychological effects in a subset of patients; furthermore, this drug may have therapeutic efficacy for a number of different neuropsychiatric conditions, ranging from Tourette syndrome to schizophrenia. In rat models of these conditions, FIN has been shown to block the effects of dopamine receptors in the nucleusaccumbens (NAcc), a key terminal of the dopamine mesolimbic system. The biological underpinnings of these effects, however, remain mostly elusive… [O]ur results showed that FIN treatment affected the expression of a number of accumbal proteins involved in key functional processes, such as regulation of GABAergic neurotransmission, as well as steroid and pyrimidine metabolism. These findings may prove crucial to understanding the neurochemical mechanisms of FIN’s neuropsychiatric side effects, as well as its potential therapeutic properties for neurological and mental disorders.
Soggiu A, Piras C, Greco V, Devoto P, Urbani A, Calzetta L, Bortolato M, Roncada P, et al. Exploring the neural mechanisms of finasteride: a proteomic analysis in the nucleus accumbens. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2016 Dec;74:387-396. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.10.001. Epub 2016 Oct 6. [PubMed]