Mayer Brezis on finasteride and drug regulation
Mayer Brezis, a professor of medicine in Jerusalem, talks about his 2025 study of finasteride, which he says can cause psychiatric harm.
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A 2025 study of finasteride
In this interview, Mayer Brezis talks about his 2025 study of finasteride. He is a professor of medicine and public health at Hadassah-Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
He says the study concluded that finasteride can cause depression and suicidality. He says it traces the long delay in recognising this partly to the manufacturer not carrying out and publishing simple drug-safety studies, and to regulators not asking for them or doing them.
What Brezis argues
- Why he believes the evidence linking finasteride to psychiatric harm now meets the criteria for cause and effect.
- How, in his view, a 20-year delay in the regulators’ response shows failures across the whole system.
- A culture he calls “deny and defend”, which he says stops modern medicine from correcting itself.
- Why he sees putting patient safety above profit as a moral duty.
Thank you to Mayer Brezis for this interview. It was recorded by Moral Medicine, who have filmed more than ninety of these conversations.
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