Can I still get better if I only take 150 mg of Wellbutrin once a day?

Question

My doc told me to take 150 mg once a day for 10 days and then up it to two pills a day. The third day I had the worst panic attack I've ever had in my life, so I called the psychiatrist, and she said to go back down to 150 mg for now. Can I get better without taking the 300 mg? I felt awful taking it.

Answer 1

You were prescribed the recommended dosage. Wellbutrin has some tough side-effects, like every drug. If your body doesn't react well to it, a different medication should be tried. She may be asking you to stay at 150mg longer to see if your body will adjust to it. Some people need longer to adjust before increasing the dose. Wellbutrin works on 2 neurotransmitters, seratonin and norepinephrine. So does Effexor. The SSRI's work only on seratonin. It's trial and error to find the right drug for an individual, so be patient. Anti-depressants have been proven to successfully treat anxiety, just be prepared to experiment. Nearly everyone has to try more than one drug before finding the right one.

Answer 2

Wellbutrin works on Dopamine, not Serotonin & norepinephrine (Effexor and Cymbalta are the ones that work on those.) It's gnerally well tolerated. I've done very well with Wellbutrin...on a dose of 300 mg. But everybody's body is different. It may be you are more sensitive to meds in general, or perhaps 300 mg of this medication is just too high a dose for you. If you are on XL, it only comes in 150 or 300, so going up to 300 is not a drastic increase, it is the way it is done.
I started having hot flashes when my dose was upped to 450, so I know that dose is too high for me. My son recently started it, at 150. When we raised it to 300, he immediately started having side effects, so we know 150 is the right dose for him. On that dose, he is having no side effects and it is proving to be highly effective for him.
150 may be the perfect dose for you. Just because the typical dose of something is a certain amount, that does not mean a smaller dose will not be effective for some people. I think it's always good to stick with the lowest dose that works for you personally. If you see no improvement in symptoms after you've been on it for about 6 weeks, you may want to talk with your doctor about considering other options. If you notice only moderate improvement, you may want to talk about adding a small dose of a second medication. Sometimes that really does the trick.

Answer 3

I'm a peer support specialist who works in the field of mental health . I can tell you right off the bat Welbutrin will do nothing for your panic attacks your doctors need to supplement it with an antihistamine or some PRN anti anxiety meds you can take atleast up to three times a day. Also the method inwhich your doctor increased the dose is not drastic at all its actually fairly common. Welbutrin is a seratonin re-uptake inhibitor but a mild one.

Answer 4

drugs like wellbutrin have to be monitored
there is a specific dose you should take
Im surprised you doctor doubled it so drastically