Minoxidil, anxiety, panic attacks.

Hi all,

For a few years, I was taking Rogaine 5% foam with no side effects, and some new hair.

In the summer of 2015, I had to buy the Target brand 5% because Rogaine was out of stock. A week after I started it, I had a pretty bad panic attack (which I thought was food poisoning at the time). Since I thought it was simply food poisoning, I stayed on the Target brand because the price was right.

Fast forward to this year. I had a panic attack in February (once again, thinking food poisoning) and in May (again thinking it was food poisoning), and in August I had a few days of panic attacks and uncontrollable anxiety. For some reason, I believed that the minoxidil was doing this to me. So I stopped. Anxiety was still there, and panic attacks were much more mild.

But last week, after a few days of anxiety free living (no kidding, I felt amazing), I decided to start using minoxidil again. The next day, I had terrible anxiety, and two days ago, I had one of the worst panic attacks I had ever had. Yesterday I was a crying mess at my therapist's office. He tells me I absolutely need to be on medication, but I don't want to be on medication.

Does anyone else have or had any issues with minoxidil and anxiety? I don't give a shit any more about my hair.

Hello,

I hope you’re okay. I had anxiety with Minoxidil.

I started taking it January 2019 and very quickly my mental health went down hill.

I had terrible anxiety, no sleep, panic attacks and suicidal thoughts.

I had to go on medication.

Instead of getting better it was getting worse.

I got so bad that I couldn’t get out of bed to put on Minoxidil for three days. Then one day I woke up completely fine.

I immediately put two and two together, and decided to stay off it. I’ve been fine ever since.

This must be a rare side effect on some people. But in my experience Minoxidil can give you anxiety.

Topical or oral minoxidil can cause slight increases in heart rates for certain persons, but so far as I know there is no scientific cause for concern. People with heart conditions and/or cardiovascular problems, no matter how slight, may experience increased heart rate or anxiousness when getting on minoxidil, but direct correlation in healthy subjects is unlikely. Id recommend following up with a doctor for a general health checkup.