Wellbutrin for Bipolar?

I'm also on wellbutrin (generic).I am diagnosed as bipolar 2. I am on 450 mg. I also take Latuda and rexulti and alprazolam. I tend to be more on the depression side of things. I have been hypo though and I deal with lots of irritability. My p doc says wellbutrin can also cause this. I guess it's been ok with me though I am still depressed. I hope if you try it it goes well for you.

Well...there's one in every crowd. Wellbutrin made me psycho-manic. All AD's do.

I'm surprised so many here can take AD. I guess I can't because my manic episodes were set off by prescriptions. Diet pills fen/phen which has an AD and propanolol, which caused insomnia and mania. I guess they see me as too high risk for mania.

I am suffering depression and anxiety

Wellbutrin is way different than other AD's that's why a lot of us can take it without going crazy.

Yeah...I noticed how many of you are on Wellbutrin. I'm glad it's an atypical AP and works well for you. I'm so damn brittle everything seems to put me right over the top...but I'm not going to give up!

Did they try titration? It looks like I am going to end up at 200mg. 300mg made me slightly hypo, then I found out I should have split the dose (using 75mg tabs to titrate) and when I did that I still felt off and really drained by the end of the day. But 225mg is treating me pretty good. It's pulling me out of the funk and it is helping with appetite suppression. I have lost 14# (still need to lose a lot more).

Have you thought about using the xl version?

The 75s were to see how much I need. I tried 2 and it was too weak. I tried 3 and it seemed pretty good but I thought 4 might be better. It wasn't. 3 is 225mg, so she will prescribe the 200mg tablets.

I do 450mg of the XL. We'd tried the SR at a lower dose, but it wasn't doing enough.

At first 450 made me a little happyhypo (which was great after a year of brutal depression), but I settled down soon enough.

One thing I might have worried about more was Wellbutrin's power to lower your seizure threshold as its dose gets higher, but I already was taking a sizable dose of lamotrigine. Haven't had any issues.

Same story here only difference I take the 300xl.

I was a little surprised that 300 was problematic as I had taken that much before but that was when I was pretending it was unipolar depression and didn't have lamictal bringing up my mood also. I may go higher at some point. It took over 6 weeks for me to settle with the lamictal. Like NatsukiKuga, I kind of enjoyed the euphoric hypomania. I was really bummed when I finally took a deep dive but only stayed deeply depressed for 6 days. Weird. But trying 300mg of wellbutrin recently, I got one day of euphoric hypomania and 2 days of feeling like crap. I have been backed off to 225 for a few days and mood is good. When I get the 200s, I will have a bunch of 75s left so I could add one a day if I started feeling depressed. I will talk to the psych NP about that, but I don't think she will have a problem with it since she was letting me self titrate,

I just started with wellbutrin 150 mg XL to titrate to 300. I'm also taking 2mg of rexulti and a tiny dose of olanzapine prn for anxiety and sleep. I'm hoping the wellbutrin will help with my chronically low energy level and apathy and help lift the depression. I took my first pill today and already feel a bit more energy but that is probably a placebo effect.

Yah, no offense, but probably was placebo so quickly.

That said, once you get stabilized, it can raise mood and energy. Sometimes too much.

Wellbutrin worked for me for a while, unfortunately I stopped feeling the benefits after five months or so. It's possible an increased dose could have helped, but I switched to Lamictal instead.

Wellbutrin is an MDRI not an SSRI. After a couple of false starts I found it is the only antidepressant that works for me. I take it with Latuda so I don't know if it could trigger mania alone. I take 450mg which is the highest safe dosage.

Wow, I am just shocked at how many people are able to take Wellbutrin. I was told that same stuff too, oh, it’s a different type of AD, you’ll be fine on it. I tried to tell my providers I had taken it in the past, before I was diagnosed with bipolar, and I was concerned it would induce mania, like all the ADs did for me. The whole reason I was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Oh, but this is different they say. Whatever.

I was prescribed Wellbutrin during my second hospital stay and within about a month it triggered the worst manic episode I have ever had in my life. I assume it is NOT typical to experience severe mania after a hospital visit, for a mixed episode, when the whole point was to stabilize you.

I finally stopped it on my own, and slowly my mania began to subside, just not as quickly as I would have liked. I was on every type of AD known to man back when it was thought I had unipolar depression, not just SSRIs, and examining my past made me realize ALL of them had a role in hypomania. I have already told providers I will NEVER take ANY AD again, even if it’s prescribed, so don’t bother. I had no idea I was in the minority with Wellbutrin. Oh well.

I wouldn't take wellbutrin without a mood stabilizer or antipsychotic at the same time. Were you on it by itself or as part of a combo?

My first manic episode was set off by high dose celexa for what my psychiatrist at the time said was 'somataform disorder' and depression. I had a chronic pain condition for which I never got a consistent diagnosis but Lyrica finally treated and I'm much better now and only take low dose Lyrica prn for anxiety. It's cold where I live now and that can trigger some pain.

Day after my first dose of wellbutrin I wake up with a giant headache and pray it gives me some energy. I am so low in energy that I've even thought about stimulants.

Mania is a risk and important to be aware of. i'm hoping the medication will speed me up toward a normal range. I'm also sticking with a lower dose for now to be on the safe side and not take anymore of this than necessary.

I don’t remember what dose of Wellbutrin I was on, but during the time I was prescribed it, I was also taking Lithium, Lamictal, Seroquel, and Klonopin. No way a pdoc would think I could be treated with just one med. 😊.

I just remembered after I’d been on Wellbutrin for several months, I got back the genetic testing that had been done with regards to my tolerance to all different types of drugs. It was the most fascinating thing I had ever seen. Drugs were divided into three groups I’ll loosely call 1) safe to take, 2) not advisable to take, and 3) absolutely do not take. It was fascinating because with regards to psychotropic drugs, every single antidepressant I have ever taken, primarily SSRIs but a couple that were not, was in the second category, not advisable to take. Except one drug that was in the absolutely do not take category - Wellbutrin! I asked my pdoc about that, since I was taking Wellbutrin at the time, and he still didn’t take me off Wellbutrin - absolutely ridiculous!

At some point I got into my manic stage when I was started to realize I was manic, and it depressed me, so that’s when I took myself off the Wellbutrin. What’s the point of doing genetic testing if you’re not going to use it to drive treatment? But my pdoc was so insistent Wellbutrin has nothing to do with influencing mania. He had been so trained to believe that, he completely ignored the genetic testing, even though I was clearly manic. Once I got into a better state of mind, that really pissed me off.

But the genetic testing was still fascinating by the fact that NONE of the ADs, not a single one, not even the non-SSRIs, was listed in the “safe to take” category for me. I think it helped solidify what my original pdoc had said, that I have likely always had bipolar disorder. That when I was treated with ADs for supposed unipolar depression, they likely induced hypomanic episodes, that eventually caused me to crash into more depression, then I was either given dosage changes or given another AD, and the whole cycle happened over and over again, for ten years...this was a classic characteristic of bipolar disorder. The fact that not a single AD was in my “safe to take” category was very telling. A little disheartening, but good to know. If you have never had genetic testing done, possibly look into it. I think it only cost me $25, and I believed that was waived due to my income.

So yeah, no ADs for me, EVER. I just forgot I have the scientific evidence to back it up.

If anyone knows how to get the genetic testing done in Canada, or if that is even possible, please let me know. I would really like to know the results of that test for myself.

Meanwhile I have some symptoms from starting wellbutrin 150 mg XL yesterday. Woke up with splitting headache after a night of vivid dreams. I dreamt of a pale green house. I mean the windows and light and everything was pale green, kind of like the colour one might see near a partially frozen stream. I also have a feeling in my abdomen that are like the onset of menstrual cramps, but I am post-menopausal so it can't be that. It also started today. Well I am just going to tough it out and hope these side effects go away.

I'm just past 2 weeks on Wellbutrin XL and have been on 300 mg for 1 week. So far I haven't noticed any change in energy or mood.

I have been taking it this winter and it has helped. I went on it because my sister, who is also BP takes it and it works well for her.

It made me manic in a hurry. Borderline psychotic. Definitely delusional. I had a terrible time and saw and chased an animal that I've been told wasn't there. Not all of the story, but that's the gist of it.

I was mixed within a week of taking it. Bad drug for me. And I was on Lamictal and Lithium.

I have and am now taking Buproprion. I have taken it at a high dose. I never had any problems with this med. This AD has in the past pulled me out of a bad depression. I think the reason I have had no problem with this med is in part that I always use a AP with it which helps. I do know of one well recognized pdoc that places patients on a mood stabilizer first instead of an AD. I do not know why, but this seems to work for his patients. Perhaps if this did not work, he may use an AD. I do not know, but this seems logical to me.

Paxil I take does nothing for my Bipolar Depression, but it works excellently for anxiety.