Does stopping Wellbutrin cause increase in appetite, decrease in sleep?

Question

I've been on Wellbutrin 150XL for about 3 years and forgot to take it for about 5 days, then decided to just stop it completely. Wondering what kind of effect that might have, as I seem to have more trouble getting to sleep, oddly enough.

Answer 1

decrease in sleep is a common side effect (probably the most common). Increase in appetite is a likely effect of improving depression and not likely to be a wellbutrin side effect. People often suffer appetite reduction with depression and eat more as they improve.

Answer 2

I've been on 300 mg of Wellbutrin for about 8 years now. Several years ago I stopped all meds suddenly (A foolish thing to do, but it's over now...). I actually didn't have a problem with stopping that particular one. It's never been a big deal when I miss doses.
You can't taper slowly off of Wellbutrin XL anyway because 150 is the smallest form in comes in. The only way to taper it would be to take it every other day, then every third day, etc. Wellbutrin itself has a higher risk of causing seizures than other similar medications, I've never heard of anyone getting them from going off of it suddenly, but you should still talk to your doctor anyway to double check. Some medications stopped cold turkey do carry a seizure risk (like Xanax.) A lot of antidepressants do need to be stopped slowly because otherwise you will probably have unpleasant psychological and physical withdrawal effects, but Wellbutrin is not known for being that way.

Answer 3

Personally, I slept much less while on Welbutrin and had some appetite supression. When I came off it, I slept more than normal for a couple weeks (normal sleep for me is 8 hours, on wellbutrin it was 7 hours, for a couple weeks after it was 10 hours). My appetite returned to normal, but not more than normal.

Answer 4

it can cause a seizure if you stop it cold turkey, you need to be tapered off it very slowly.