[BK68]

I suffer from extreme anxiety and panic attacks as well as bipolar depression. My trial with wellbutrin (150mg taken daily for 2 weeks) is not helping. I see my pdoc tomorrow and he will insist on trying something else. Anyone have any med suggestions for bipolar depression accompanied by severe (debilitating) anxiety and panic attacks?

[BrandonSS90]

I am not sure what to tell you honestly, because I do not know your full situation. All I can say is.. just tell your doctor how you feel. With any pills, really, my pdoc told me you should at least give it around 6 weeks, to see improvement. 2 Weeks is not long.. maybe you should give it more time.. :-). Just something to consider. Or keeping you ON the Wellbutrin, and adding something else along with it... but.. at least give it a month in my opinion. 'Cause that's what they've always told me...

Good luck!

[bchlyn]

i have panic disorder and ptsd... i was on wellbutrine too... but was increased to 300mg... it helped at the higher dose until i tried the generic and i had a really bad reaction... made the panic much worse... i don't know about bipolar... but now i am on effexor and it seems to be really helping with my anxiety. my doctor had wanted me to take abilify for the anxiety... it is prescribed off label for ptsd... but it is approved for bipolar .... i wanted to try the effexor first because i felt uncomfortable using it for something it wasn't approved for...my med doc said it was really good and didn't have the weight gain issues... that it works on a different part of the brain and helps with anxiety in patients that don't respond to other drugs... good luck...lyn

[AAAAA]

My doctor told me that Wellbutrine does not help with anxiety, he supplimented the Wellbutrine with Lorazapam for anxiety to take as needed.

[BalishBun]

Well I hope everything goes good at the docs

[obsids]

I have PTSD, not BP, so I don't know if there are specifics to certain meds. Wellbutrin made me jittery and anxious. It was almost like chemically-induced ADHD at higher doses for me. At a low dose, I just had a fine tremor in my hands all the time.

There are a lot of other meds that are commonly used for anxiety. I took Buspar at one point. Right now, I take Xanax XR twice a day to control my anxiety symptoms.... other meds for the depression and other symptoms.

Regular immediate release Xanax has its limitations. The XR keeps a steady level in my system. I am a disaster of constant panic attacks without it.... and yes, for those who wonder, I have tried going off it. It wasn't a big deal, but I returned to major panic/anxiety attacks without it.