Quote:
Originally Posted by ultramar
I had my first psychotic episode on Wellbutrin, this was about a decade ago, before diagnosis. A psychiatrist told me it's quite activating (someone said stimulant, I guess the same thing). For this reason I've been surprised at how often it's prescribed, but it really seems to help some people, and I don't know if maybe in the context of Bipolar II, if one's hypomania episodes are fairly mild, if this stimulant aspect of it then doesn't tend to send someone into mania?
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It can induce mania to some BP folks but honestly the chances are very low. There was a study of 40 or 50 BP people given Wellbutrin, only about 4% experienced mania during it. However what is not really certain is how many of those 4% would have gone manic without wellbutrin. I have to find the link with all these tests with different meds and disorders, really interesting! Anyway, of all the antidepressants, Wellbutrin appears to be the safest for BP according to studies any way. Which is hard to understand because Wellbutrin is a mild stimulant that activates more dopamine. The way I understand it is it does this in a entirely different way then other stimulants and there is actually a limit or "roof'.