Hi, I am new to this board. My daughter has just been switched from Paxil to Wellbutrin and I am interested in hearing personal experiences with it-not the stuff the drug companies say! :rolleyes:
Any input will be appreciated. Thanks, Gina

The good things about Wellbutrin are that it is energizing and that it doesn't have the sexual side effects. The downside is that, in some people, it can exacerbate anxiety.

I too have just been switched from Paxil cr to Wellbutrin xl. I have not taken the Wellbutrin yet though. It does have a higher risk of seizers and I am worried about that. I could definetly use the energy part though. Also, I heard that Wellbutrin can cause weight loss. That is a good point for me. Does anyone elso have any insites on this medication?

I too have just been switched from Paxil cr to Wellbutrin xl. I have not taken the Wellbutrin yet though. It does have a higher risk of seizers and I am worried about that. I could definetly use the energy part though. Also, I heard that Wellbutrin can cause weight loss. That is a good point for me. Does anyone elso have any insites on this medication?

It's a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor with some inhibition on dopamine; norepinephrine is basically adrenaline and dopamine is an intermediate to adrenaline.

Adrenaline is a principal blood-pressure-raising hormone.

It is believed adrenaline is the culprit of panic attacks. Wellbutrin can lower the seizure threshold, making one more suseptable to seizure.

I don't know, I'd sure not take it but thats just me...

Hi, I am new to this board. My daughter has just been switched from Paxil to Wellbutrin and I am interested in hearing personal experiences with it-not the stuff the drug companies say! :rolleyes:
Any input will be appreciated. Thanks, Gina



Hi ! :wave:

I hope I have GOOD NEWS for you !

I can only tell you what medications have/are working for me,
and hope I can say something that will be of help to you..........,

I have taken several different Anti-depressants in the last several years.
I have been taking Wellbutrin XL since it came out on the market.
My P Doctor switched me from WELLBUTRIN SR, to WELLBUTRIN XL.
So for, WELLBUTRIN XL has worked for me ! It not only helps my depression,
it also supresses my appetite (I've lost weight !), and it helped me to
' Quit smoking ', as well as working wonders for my depression !

I can also tell you that recently my Husband was diagnosed as having
' Macular Degeneration ' !
This is a very disturbing condition, and we are both soooooo scared. This has been a very sudden thing, and it is irreversable !
He has lost a LOT of vision in his left eye, is subject to loosing his eyesite
in his right eye. And he has had many laser surgeries.
And, also, he is ALWAYS subject to having more.

He's one of those folks who want take an asprin unless he's half dead.
The medication that was prescribed for him, along with the vitamins for
' eye conditions ', is WELLBUTRIN XL ! It has helped him soooooo much.
Also, he quit smoking, same as me !! It's been SIX MONTHS now !! Yeah ! :)
This was HUGE for him, as he smoked three packs a day ! I smoked about a
half pack a day !

I know what you mean about the drug companies. I think this is a shame,
don't you ? :rolleyes:

I wish you and your Daughter well, and I hope I have been of some help.

Take Care Gina,

Gee Gee

Jennita,
Many anti-depressants lower your seizure threshold, but the key here is "lower." If you have a normal seizure threshold, you shouldn't need to worry about it. But if you have a previous history of them, or some other condition causing you to have a lower threshold than normal, then it is a concern.
Michael

Thanks for the responses, you all. Gee Gee and someone else mentioned weight loss? My daughter is anorexic!! Anybody have any experience with eating disorders and Wellbutrin? Holy moley, she sure doesn't need to curb her appetite! She is 29, so I don't feel I can tell the psychiatrist, or can I?
Sign me worried, Gina

Thanks for the responses, you all. Gee Gee and someone else mentioned weight loss? My daughter is anorexic!! Anybody have any experience with eating disorders and Wellbutrin? Holy moley, she sure doesn't need to curb her appetite! She is 29, so I don't feel I can tell the psychiatrist, or can I?
Sign me worried, Gina



Hi Gina, from Gee Gee, :wave:

I haven't experienced eating disorders related to Wellbutrin, however,
considering your circumstances with your daughter,
I can certainly see why you are worried, so I would definately talk to her
P Doctor about her eating disorder.

I didn't mean for you to be worried,

I wish you well, and I bet you will make the right decision. Please keep me posted, okay ?

I hope your daughter is better soon.

Take Care,

Gee Gee

Hi. I'm really from the bipolar group, as you may have noticed by my user name, but we understand and cope with depression just like you guys do!!

This thread caught my eye because I have been on Wellbutrin for 3 years. I was first treated for depression. It was only last year that I was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

I did not find a signifigant weight-loss with welbutrin. However I did lose 20 in less than a month when I took prozac. I also use a mood-stabilizer, and sedative to keep me from becoming manic. THAT has caused a weight-gain. But I think that a big part of what causes the weight issues is how the med makes you feel, hungry, lethargic,etc...

One question I wanted to respond to was the question about whether or not to mention your daughters anorxia to the Dr. The answer is YES!!! Always tell the psychiatrist any information that can help them find the right med for the patient.

Withholding any information like that can only be harmful in the long run. Besides, an eating disorder is a phychiatric condition....so it is absloutely important for them to know. They need to know what kind of things can "trigger" a re-lapse of her other existing conditions.

Good luck, and keep learning everything you can about depression and anorexia.

-H

If you do a search on the internet about side effects of wellbutrin, it does tell you not to take it if you have an eating disorder because of the risk of seizures. Also, there is a commercial on tv that says the same thing about it. Does anyone know if it is okay to drink alcohol occassionally and smoke while on Wellbutrin, I do smoke, and I like to drink socially ever once in a while.

Jennita,
Many anti-depressants lower your seizure threshold, but the key here is "lower." If you have a normal seizure threshold, you shouldn't need to worry about it. But if you have a previous history of them, or some other condition causing you to have a lower threshold than normal, then it is a concern.
Michael

Amazing, then, that I've read of many people who had no prior history of seizures did in fact have a seizure on Wellbutrin!

How does one know/test for low seizure threshold? Of course, a prior history of seizures is an obvious factor, however, one never knows if a certain dosage of Wellbutrin is just enough to cause that first seizure, right? THere is a first time for everything....

See, psychiatry takes the risk with your brain...odds are, you won't have a seizure but since they have no method of testing your brain chemicals they really can't say for sure if you will or won't.

So I'm thinking that taking any medication/substance that could cause a seizure is risky, even in people who didn't have a seizure before.

It would be like giving people a certain amount of insulin without testing if they indeed have diabetes, and with no daily monitoring of blood sugar levels. That seems insane, doesn't it, but in fact without measures one cannot know how much is too much/too little or if in fact there is imbalance to start with.

I know most people are willing to take the risk, that's ok but they should know there is actually risk, that no prior history doesn't necessarily guarentee anything, other than help the odds a bit.

I also know of people who become manic while on antidepressants and are told they no doubt had hidden, unmasked, or bi-polar that was undiagnoised, instead of the very real possibility that the AD itself may have caused the mania. A few of the people decided to taper off their AD and found that the mania never did come back....so indeed, although prior histories of various things like seizures and manic behavior is an indicator, it seems that the drug's themselves can be the real cause of some (not necessarily all) of it.

So in my own personal choices, if I know a drug could cause a seizure, mania, diabetes, etc., I would avoid it unless the only other alternative was death. But that's just me, IMHO, my own personal choice. ;)

I don't try to tell people what to do but just think about some of these things, that's all....

Thanks for the responses, you all. Gee Gee and someone else mentioned weight loss? My daughter is anorexic!! Anybody have any experience with eating disorders and Wellbutrin? Holy moley, she sure doesn't need to curb her appetite! She is 29, so I don't feel I can tell the psychiatrist, or can I?
Sign me worried, Gina

Good grief yes, I agree with the other poster that the doctor should know about the anorexia. Wellbutrin will cause a loss of appeitite and weight loss. Sounds like your daughter can't afford that according to you....

Deletexxxx

Thanks for the responses, you all. Gee Gee and someone else mentioned weight loss? My daughter is anorexic!! Anybody have any experience with eating disorders and Wellbutrin? Holy moley, she sure doesn't need to curb her appetite! She is 29, so I don't feel I can tell the psychiatrist, or can I?
Sign me worried, Gina

Gina, your daughter's doctor needs to know ASAP about her anorexia! Not because Wellbutrin may cause weight loss, but because having a history of eating disorders greatly increases the risk of seizures from it.

Okay, thanks all. I didn't know about the seizure thing either. I will call him today.

i'm 23 and i've been on wellbutrin for a few months. i initially lost 15 lbs, which only brought me back to normal. i fought anorexia in high school. i was afraid that wellbutrin would cause a relapse, so i told my husband to watch out for me. i told him exactly what happens in my head to make me not want to eat. because he knew what to look for, he pointed out when i was going down a wrong road, and then i was fine. the first month on it, i was exhasted. but i felt better. i didn't cry when a social occation came up. i didn't freak out when i locked my keys in my car in the middle of nowhere. those were good signs. second month, most of the side effects had worn off, and i was all about the excersise to get rid of this energy! third month, i feel perfectly normal, like i did before i had any troubles. i'm not physcotically energetic (unless i dink coffee), but i am able to wake up and start my day before 2pm! :-) i even saw a sunrise the other day- and enjoyed it! i'm not too tired, but i do have problems falling asleep if i had a hard day. i am no longer afraid of work and the socializing that it requires. and i don't blame my husband for every little thing that goes wrong. that's the biggie- i have conquered my problem of internalizing comments or situations that actually have nothing to do with me.

this is my experience, it's differnt for everyone- especially if the problem is not something wellbutrin was made for. i don't know all the scientific stuff- i leave that up to the doctors. as far as seziers... man, i was staying in bed for days. my marrage was in danger. i didn't care to do ANYTHING. i couldn't even make myself get out of bed long enough to get a book to read, and that's my favorate thing to do! i'd take the risk if it means not returning to that. every drug out there (yes, herbal too) has a risk of something. it's just a matter of weighing the pros and cons. keep in mind that doctors are in constant fear of malpractice suits- they will rarely give a drug out that has a high risk that they know about.

thelovelyamber, did you only suffer from depression? Or did you have anxiety also? Does the wellbutrin make you anxious at all?

i have been diagnosed with depression. i think maybe i had a bit of social anxiety. the meds didn't make me axious, exactly.. but i was very hyper for a while. it could be seen as anxious by someone who didn't know me well. that went away when i bought a treadmill and could just walk it off.

I've had good results with it. I've been taking it for almost two years and only had the dosage increased a month ago.

I am considering going on Welbutrin because of the sexual side effects with the other AD's. I know they were first brought in in the Uk a few years ago for giving up smoking and there was uproar over them as they caused a lot of seizures. Since then though all Ive heard are good reports about them. Im off to the docs next week so I will be talking to her then.

i'm 23 and i've been on wellbutrin for a few months. i initially lost 15 lbs, which only brought me back to normal. i fought anorexia in high school. i was afraid that wellbutrin would cause a relapse, so i told my husband to watch out for me. i told him exactly what happens in my head to make me not want to eat. because he knew what to look for, he pointed out when i was going down a wrong road, and then i was fine. the first month on it, i was exhasted. but i felt better. i didn't cry when a social occation came up. i didn't freak out when i locked my keys in my car in the middle of nowhere. those were good signs. second month, most of the side effects had worn off, and i was all about the excersise to get rid of this energy! third month, i feel perfectly normal, like i did before i had any troubles. i'm not physcotically energetic (unless i dink coffee), but i am able to wake up and start my day before 2pm! :-) i even saw a sunrise the other day- and enjoyed it! i'm not too tired, but i do have problems falling asleep if i had a hard day. i am no longer afraid of work and the socializing that it requires. and i don't blame my husband for every little thing that goes wrong. that's the biggie- i have conquered my problem of internalizing comments or situations that actually have nothing to do with me.

this is my experience, it's differnt for everyone- especially if the problem is not something wellbutrin was made for. i don't know all the scientific stuff- i leave that up to the doctors. as far as seziers... man, i was staying in bed for days. my marrage was in danger. i didn't care to do ANYTHING. i couldn't even make myself get out of bed long enough to get a book to read, and that's my favorate thing to do! i'd take the risk if it means not returning to that. every drug out there (yes, herbal too) has a risk of something. it's just a matter of weighing the pros and cons. keep in mind that doctors are in constant fear of malpractice suits- they will rarely give a drug out that has a high risk that they know about.

Just a note: technically, you could not sue a doctor for malpractice if all he does is prescribe a drug within normal allowances even if it causes harm because the exact mechanisms are admitted to be unknown even by the drug co's so they do not guarentee a person would not have a side effect, even if it is seizures. They also fully disclose the possibility of seizure in the drug info of Wellbutrin, so if the patient understands the risk and agrees to take the drug anyway, well, I'm guessing it would be a big waste of time to hire a lawyer...

Thanks for the responses, you all. Gee Gee and someone else mentioned weight loss? My daughter is anorexic!! Anybody have any experience with eating disorders and Wellbutrin? Holy moley, she sure doesn't need to curb her appetite! She is 29, so I don't feel I can tell the psychiatrist, or can I?
Sign me worried, Gina

Gina-

I was just put on Wellbutrin 4 days ago in hopes of lifting my libido (it went away when my effexor was uped in sept). So I am on effexor and wellbutrin. I have bulimia, but its under control and has been for a few months otherwise my doc WOULD NOT have put me non wellbutrin. Apparently its REALLY bad for ppl who have active eating disorders because eating disorders mess up you electrolytes- and since wellbutrin can increase the chance of seizures as it is, if you're messing up yur electrolytes you chance of a seizure is much higher. We talked in depth abou this.... he told me I had to be completely honest about my ED otherwise he wouldn't put me on it... too much risk

She shouldnt be on wellbutrin if she's anorexic! Its too risky...

Good luck to you and your daughter :)
Becky

I have taken Prozac, Lexapro and now am on 300mg WellbutrinXL.
The Wellbutrin is the best of them all!
I feel alive again.

I lost 25 lbs on it ! in one month I told the doctors they told me to give it time

Ditto what Becky said about the eating disorder warning. My "info" sheet for Busprione (generic Wellbutrin) says specifically not for people with a history of anoxeria or bulemia. I'm sure if the ED is controlled, it's not an issue but I'm sure there are people with an ED that relapse and being on the Wellbutrin then could have devastating effects.

C.