In the past 6 months I've had two patients treated with sertraline who complained of hair loss. These cases were less complicated as they did not have trichotillomania. The patients were otherwise young and healthy, without thyroid disease, etc. In each case, they preferred to remain on the medication as it greatly helped their mood. The hair loss did not seem to progress.
Hair loss is listed as a side effect of serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
She added that the hair loss is generally subjective and not easy to document and that she has never ever been able to find an etiology for these cases. This internist said she heard somewhere that hair loss is only considered abnormal if it's more than 100 strands a day. Hair loss with divalproex Funny thing, I've been losing hair since I started prescriping sertraline. Maybe because it became available when I hit the mid-40s. For divalproex-induced hair loss, I have patients take a mulitvitamin that includes selenium and zinc, and that often helps.