My Luck with Wellbutrin (Buproprion)

[cporro]

I had good luck with wellbutrin for depression and fatigue. anyone else? how does it work? is there a side effect free alternative? below is a summery.

i have tried lots of things over the years. maybe 10 doctors, hormones, supps, diets, lifestyle. but wellbutrin actually helped more then anything. it gave me a type of "slow burn" stable energy. i only needed 6 hours of sleep a day. i felt like a could focus better. this went on for about a year. i went back to school at age 46, applied for a masters program. in short i got on with my life.

but then it started to "poop out". my doctor said lets try 450mg. i began to see this was not a great long term solution. 450mg is a high dose and wellbutrin does have side effects. where would i be in 5 years or 20?

i decided to get off wellbutrin. this was one of the hardest things i've ever quit in my life ( i have what might be called a non-addictive personality). my doctor said it wasn't addictive. but after 8 weeks off it i didn't care about anything. a new low for me. it took 3 tries to finally kick it. each time the horrible feelings started at 8 weeks off. about the same amount of time it took to work.

since then i've thought isn't this a clue? what is wellbutrin doing? is it really an epinephrene and norepinephrine re-uptake inhibitor? why does it take so long to be effective and crash? is it an anti-inflammatory? a low grade upper? what else can do what wellbutrin has done for me? it can't be the only path on the planet.

thoughts?

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

since then i've thought isn't this a clue? what is wellbutrin doing? is it really an epinephrene and norepinephrine re-uptake inhibitor? why does it take so long to be effective and crash? is it an anti-inflammatory? a low grade upper? what else can do what wellbutrin has done for me? it can't be the only path on the planet.

thoughts?

Wow. Just ..... wow.

You're going to a whole new place with this, somewhere that Drs, as far as I know, never even thought of. I wish I had something more than enthusiasm and encouragement to offer, but Ive never tried Wellbutrin for this crappy little head-banger of an illness, though the determination of Drs to try to get me on some form or other of an anti-depressant was an Olympic-quality effort, like their income depended on it or something.

And Drs always say this shit is non-addictive. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they're just that ill-educated and oblivious. But somehow, I dont think so.

Total respect to you for getting off the Wellbutrin. All those 'non-addictive' anti-depressants, SSRI's, SNRI;s, tri-cyclics, MAO inhibitors, you name it. They're all hell to get loose of, and some either never do or literally die trying.

Keep searching. Like the guy said, ".....the answer's out there.....", and as far as I can tell, it's up to us to dfind it.

Kudos again on a hard-fought, hard-won victory !!!

 

[Wishful]

I did try it (psychiatrist's suggestion). It had no noticeable effect. He said to try double the dose. That made me feel dizzy. When I reported that, he said there wasn't anything else he could do for me.

I'm grateful that I wasn't on it long enough to become dependent. I wasn't warned about that.

 

[junkcrap50]

I had a great response on it - 15mg XL. Felt like i was 90-95% cured. But lost it when I switched from the extended release (XL) to immediate release. Doc was trying to increase the effect. Now I'm back on the XL but haven't regained all the benefits i lost with the switch... Which is real depressing & infuriating.

After reading your post, now I'm worried about tolerance & losing its effect.

EDIT: 150mg not 15mg

 

[cporro]

I had a great response on it - 15mg XL. Felt like i was 90-95% cured. But lost it when I switched from the extended release (XL) to immediate release. Doc was trying to increase the effect. Now I'm back on the XL but haven't regained all the benefits i lost with the switch... Which is real depressing & infuriating.

After reading your post, now I'm worried about tolerance & losing its effect.

lucky for you you started at 15mg and not 300mg like i did. but i think your concerns are legit.

a friend of mine is on it. much less. 75mg. what her doctor does it cycle between the xl and the shorter half life version. he thinks it will help with poop out. i'm suspicious. but she has a very different reaction to it then i did. she can't beleive i was on such a high start dose. she says 150 mg made her insanely tweaked grinding her teeth.

it's real poop show the way we have to be guinea pigs figuring out anti-depressants. some researches have looked at brain chemistry as a predictor of suited anti depressants. but for most MDs it's still trial (on you) and error (on you).

 

[junkcrap50]

I meant to say 150mg not 15mg. Well 300mg isn't a super high dose if it was XL. That's basically the average dose and depending on the indication for precribing it, the starting dose (say for depression). It also matters if it's extended release, sustained release, and immediate release. If it's XL, you can divide the dose by ~3, to get an equivalent immediate release dose.

But god I hope tolerance isn't a real big issue.

Yeah, psychiatry is basically trial and error, bc each person responds so differently to different drugs.

 

[Cheryl M]

I was on it for a while to push my very low blood pressure up (which worked). Unfortunately I eventually went up to the maximum dose (alongside the max dose of Prozac) and suffered a very serious adverse reaction that I'm assuming was serotonin toxicity combined with akathisia. So I advise you not to combine it with other serotonergic drugs, at least not at full dose.

 

[SherDa]

I had a really great response to bupropion for 2 weeks. Then, it abruptly stopped working, and I felt dreadful.

My friend who has advanced nutrition/biochemistry education suggested that my methylation capacity was too poor to maintain the neurotransmitter levels. However, those who are actually trained in biochemistry or nutrition with a heavy science background (so not dietitians) are well aware of the complexity and so don't tend to make sweeping generalizations. She knew she was always giving me her best guess and not a definite answer.

Anyway, I haven't retried bupropion with adequate B6, methylfolate and methyl B12. I'm really into this notion that the low dopamine is part of sickness behavior, and the better route would be to find out why my body is convinced that I'm so sick. The depression caused by inflammation may be treatable with bupropion (I honestly don't know), but if inflammation is destroying my B6, causing iron restriction, altering serotonin production, et cetera, then I don't want to just take bupropion to cover it all up with fake energy.

Best of luck to you in finding out how to overcome the 'poop-out' that antidepressants are well-known for. I would be interested in hearing about it. It may give some clue as to the underlying biochemistry at work.

 

[cporro]

I had a really great response to bupropion for 2 weeks. Then, it abruptly stopped working, and I felt dreadful.

My friend who has advanced nutrition/biochemistry education suggested that my methylation capacity was too poor to maintain the neurotransmitter levels. However, those who are actually trained in biochemistry or nutrition with a heavy science background (so not dietitians) are well aware of the complexity and so don't tend to make sweeping generalizations. She knew she was always giving me her best guess and not a definite answer.

Anyway, I haven't retried bupropion with adequate B6, methylfolate and methyl B12. I'm really into this notion that the low dopamine is part of sickness behavior, and the better route would be to find out why my body is convinced that I'm so sick. The depression caused by inflammation may be treatable with bupropion (I honestly don't know), but if inflammation is destroying my B6, causing iron restriction, altering serotonin production, et cetera, then I don't want to just take bupropion to cover it all up with fake energy.

Best of luck to you in finding out how to overcome the 'poop-out' that antidepressants are well-known for. I would be interested in hearing about it. It may give some clue as to the underlying biochemistry at work.

you might want to check out william walsh's work and research. i think he's considered orthomolecular biology. he has a lot of data. you really need to treat folates....B9s with caution. some people (me for example) are made worse by them. i was put on B complexes by a few doctors and always felt worse within a week. Walsh has a theory on this....but it certainly pans out in practice which is all i care about.

anyway....b vitamins, folate, zinc, methylation....that's walsh's main work. that and how these relate to brain chemistry imbalances (depression, rage, ADHD). he's a science based and practical.

 

[SherDa]

@cporro Thanks for your concern. I majored in nutritional sciences with a biochemical focus myself (which is why I have biochemistry friends). I'd consider myself pretty well-read on many nutritional topics, and I read about Walsh's work years ago.

I don't have B vitamin or zinc deficiencies as the cause of my symptoms. I respond very well to folate and will continue to take it as I see fit. I did not start this thread, and I'm not the one looking for advice, but again, thanks for your concern.