[BatsBelfry]

My PNP took me off the Wellbutrin that she prescribed because she said it can cause cycling in BP people. I find it odd since I have been on this med for some time now. Anyone ever heard that?

Another odd thing was that the office had everyone who checked in fill out this form on how you are doing. Standard question for over the last 2 weeks. I had a down cycle recently so I answered honestly. The first things out of her mouth after hello was do you need to be hospitalized? I see this lady 4 times a year basically. I have BP and I cycle. I don't see what is so odd with this that I would need to be asked if I need to be hospitalized. I was so offended. I think more needs to go into hospitalization that me filling out a form. I think this is what I get for being honest.

[Moose72]

Originally Posted by BatsBelfry

My PNP took me off the Wellbutrin that she prescribed because she said it can cause cycling in BP people. I find it odd since I have been on this med for some time now. Anyone ever heard that?

Another odd thing was that the office had everyone who checked in fill out this form on how you are doing. Standard question for over the last 2 weeks. I had a down cycle recently so I answered honestly. The first things out of her mouth after hello was do you need to be hospitalized? I see this lady 4 times a year basically. I have BP and I cycle. I don't see what is so odd with this that I would need to be asked if I need to be hospitalized. I was so offended. I think more needs to go into hospitalization that me filling out a form. I think this is what I get for being honest.

She may have seen something else not just that paper

[tecomsin]

These forms doctors have us fill out are wide ranging screens and shouldn't be used to suggest to people that they might need to go the hospital. I would also be offended. She could take a few minutes to talk to you at least and ask some pertinent questions before making such a suggestion.

On the other hand Wellbutrin can cause some people to cycle who would be more stable without it. Any antidepressant can do that.

[jaysmotogp]

Sorry to hear, know how you feel. My first Psych put me on lexapro, then remeron, then wellbutrin, and each time immediately i went hypo on all. That Psych was not a good one. Fired him, went to another who pretty much immediately said i was BP2, then put me on lithium. after a while on lithium we re-introduced the remeron, things went fine, then re-introduced the wellbutrin, and to be honest, yes i did send me hypo. In fact my crashed starting Friday and have been in the dark hole these last few days. Whether i continue to cycle on it we'll see, but Im sticking with the wellbutrin as i'm confident that now i'm past the first hypo period we can normalize things going forward.
I hope

[SorryShaped]

Of all the things Wellbutrin did to me, like the permanent shakiness decades after stopping it, it did help my depression, but probably only because it pushed me into not sleeping which came with or brought mania. I was prescribed it for ADHD, back when you had to do it off-label.

[xRavenx]

Wellbutrin made me restless, manicky, and I just generally "didn't feel right," although it didn't make me delusional in the way that SSRIs do. Antidepressants just make things worse for me.
However, I've heard Wellbutrin has helped a lot of people with Bipolar, along with a mood stabilizer at the same time. Meds are tricky and how they vary from person to person.

[Pookyl]

Yep. Antidepressants cause either a mixed mood or mania in me so I can’t take them.

[GLMS]

I take Wellbutrin, along with a mood stabilizer and it didn't cause any increase in anxiety, or make me hypomanic, which for me has been the mixed mood kind, agitated, angry and a bit dark.

I started it several weeks before the mood stabilizer, when I was being treated as if I had only depression and anxiety. While it didn't cause any negative symptoms it also did zero to help with the depression.

That hasn't been my experience with all AD's, lexapro made me really hypomanic and took me to a bad place in my head, although I didn't realize that's what it was at the time.

[Blue_Bird]

I'm on wellbutrin and don't have a problem, I'm also on a moodstabilizer though

[BipolaRNurse]

Wellbutrin made me manic and psychotic...I'll never touch the stuff again. I'm glad it works for some people though.

[~Christina]

I went on total Bytch mode within a week years ago when I took it to stop smoking so I’m sure it would explode my world now.

[Nola0250]

Wellbutrin works well for me along with 2 mood stabilizers. It talked me from being almost too depressed to function, to being able to function and manage the rest of my depression symptoms behaviorally

[BatsBelfry]

Thank you all for your thoughts. So far after stopping Wellbutrin cold turkey on Saturday I'm OK. No issues. I'm on a level mood though now so we will see if I still cycle as badly.

I've read positive reviews about Wellbutrin written by other people with bipolar disorder (used with a moodstabilizer and/or antipsychotic). My experiences were not so positive. I've never used plain old Wellbutrin, but did briefly take Wellbutrin SR and Wellbutrin XR a long time ago.

When I took Wellbutrin SR, I took it along with Depakote ER and Invega. At that time, I had been very depressed for a very long time. I found Depakote ER and Invega to be great at ridding me of severe manic symptoms I had, during a hospitalization. That's when I was put on that duo, but they left me purely depressed. The Wellbutrin SR was later added, but didn't seem to even touch my depression. In the end, I was taken off the Wellbutrin SR and had ECT treatments.

After my ECT treatments, the doctors put me back on Depakote ER and Invega. Yea, brilliant idea! The depression returned, but I refused more ECT. I was hospitalized again, but my meds were switched to Lithium ER and Geodon. My depression started to lift, but not entirely. Then my therapist had the idea that maybe Wellbutrin might help the second time around with the new combo. I mentioned that to my psychiatrist, and he was like "Are you sure you want to try it?" I said yes, so he put me on Wellbutrin XR (not SR). Within about a week, my moods went nuts and I was up and down wildly, with extreme mixed symptoms and anxiety. He took me off the Wellbutrin XR, and I calmed down quickly, but was then mildly depressed, an actual improvement. My psychiatrist then added a bit of Lamictal. When I reached the small dose of 75 mg, it did the trick. In fact, I was growing increasingly euphoric manic at 100 mg. My psychiatrist had to add more antipsychotic to bring me down. I've stayed at 100 mg of Lamictal since, but my Lithium and Geodon were eventually replaced with Tegretol XR and Seroquel XR because of bad side effects.