Wellbutrin: Uses, Side Effects, Dosages, Precautions

Nancy Schimelpfening, MS is the administrator for the non-profit depression support group Depression Sanctuary. Book an appointment to get your symptoms assessed and obtain a prescription online. Sign up to receive mental health news and tips delivered right in your inbox every month.

RxList does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. You can ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist for information about WELLBUTRIN that is written for healthcare professionals. If you would like more information, talk with your healthcare provider. If you tell the person giving you the drug screening test that you are taking WELLBUTRIN, they can do a more specific drug screening test that should not have this problem.

• To help prevent nausea, some people take Wellbutrin with food.
• If you are trying to access this site from the United States, please try heading to our homepage or our drug directory.
• The pooled analyses of placebo-controlled trials in adults with MDD or other psychiatric disorders included a total of 295 short-term trials (median duration of 2 months) of 11 antidepressant drugs in over 77,000 subjects.
• If you have trouble sleeping (insomnia), do not take this medicine too close to bedtime.
• Some people had these symptoms when they began taking bupropion, and others developed them after several weeks of treatment, or after stopping bupropion.

Overdose Information for Wellbutrin

Tell all of your healthcare providers about the medicines you take. People with bipolar disorder who take an antidepressant, such as bupropion, may have a higher risk of having mania or a manic episode. Call your healthcare provider if your blood pressure increases while taking this medicine. Stop taking bupropion and call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms. This drug may not be the right treatment for you if you have certain medical conditions or other factors that affect your health.

What are the more common side effects of Wellbutrin?

They can help advise you on the risks and benefits of breastfeeding while taking Wellbutrin. However, it’s not known if the drug may cause side effects in a breastfed child. If you and your doctor decide to continue Wellbutrin treatment during pregnancy, there’s a registry that monitors your treatment. Your doctor may recommend an eye exam before starting treatment.

Alcohol and Wellbutrin

• Stopping abruptly can also lead to discontinuation syndrome, an array of flu-like symptoms such as stomach upset, headache, strange sensations, and muscle aches.
• Study findings on bupropion exposure during the first trimester and risk for left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) are inconsistent and do not allow conclusions regarding a possible association.
• Bupropion produced an increase in chromosomal aberrations in 1 of 3 in vivo rat bone marrow cytogenetic studies.
• This medicine may cause some people to have a false sense of wellbeing, or to become drowsy, dizzy, or less alert than they are normally.

Bupropion should not be taken while you are using certain other medicines. Do not take bupropion if you have or have had an eating disorder, such as anorexia or bulimia. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms of angle-closure glaucoma. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of these symptoms, or if you have been told by others you have these symptoms. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms of a manic episode.

Stevens-Johnson syndrome, angioedema, exfoliative dermatitis, urticaria, acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis, and drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS). Furthermore, while 35% of subjects receiving tricyclic antidepressants gained weight, only 9.4% of subjects treated with WELLBUTRIN did. Table 2 summarizes the adverse reactions that occurred in placebo-controlled trials at an incidence of at least 1% of subjects receiving WELLBUTRIN and more frequently in these subjects than in the placebo group. The risk of administering methylene blue by non-intravenous routes (such as oral tablets or by local injection) or in intravenous doses much lower than 1 mg/kg with WELLBUTRIN is unclear. Drug interactions can increase the risk of hypertensive reactions.

It is also used off-label to help with symptoms of various other conditions. Wellbutrin is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat major depressive disorder (MDD) and seasonal affective disorder (SAD). In fact, Wellbutrin is often prescribed along with other antidepressants to help counter their sexual side effects, like loss of desire. For over 20 years Dr. Umhau was a senior clinical investigator at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). John C. Umhau, MD, MPH, CPE is board-certified in addiction medicine and preventative medicine. Nancy has a lifetime of experience with depression, experiencing firsthand how devastating this illness can be.

What are the side effects of stopping Wellbutrin?

In the third trial, outpatients were treated with 300 mg/day of Wellbutrin side effects WELLBUTRIN. This trial demonstrated the effectiveness of WELLBUTRIN for only the 450-mg/day dose. The second trial included 2 doses of WELLBUTRIN (300 and 450 mg/day) and placebo. Although citalopram is not primarily metabolized by CYP2D6, in one trial bupropion increased the Cmax and AUC of citalopram by 30% and 40%, respectively. Animal data indicated that bupropion may be an inducer of drug-metabolizing enzymes in humans.

Overdoses of up to 30 grams or more of bupropion have been reported. Because elderly patients are more likely to have decreased renal function, it may be necessary to consider this factor in dose selection; it may be useful to monitor renal function see DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION, Use In Specific Populations, CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY. The risk of adverse reactions may be greater in patients with impaired renal function. Reported clinical experience has not identified differences in responses between the elderly and younger patients, but greater sensitivity of some older individuals cannot be ruled out. The average daily infant exposure (assuming 150 mL/kg daily consumption) to bupropion and its active metabolites was 2% of the maternal weight-adjusted dose. In a lactation study of 10 women, levels of orally dosed bupropion and its active metabolites were measured in expressed milk.

Postmarketing Experience

Use extreme caution when coadministering WELLBUTRIN with other drugs that lower seizure threshold (e.g., other bupropion products, antipsychotics, antidepressants, theophylline, or systemic corticosteroids). Patients treated concomitantly with WELLBUTRIN and such drugs may require increased doses of the drug see CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY. Concomitant treatment with these drugs can decrease bupropion and hydroxybupropion exposure. Antidepressants increased the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior in children, adolescents, and young adults in short-term trials.

What should I do if I accidentally use too much bupropion?

If you have depression, your doctor might suggest Wellbutrin as a treatment option. These side effects may go away during treatment as your body adjusts to the medicine. This includes prescription or nonprescription (over-the-counter OTC) medicines and herbal or vitamin supplements. Do not take other medicines unless they have been discussed with your doctor. This medicine may cause some people to have a false sense of wellbeing, or to become drowsy, dizzy, or less alert than they are normally.

Description for Wellbutrin

However, there were 16% and 32% increases in the AUC and Cmax, respectively of the combined moieties of threohydrobupropion and erythrohydrobupropion. The effects of concomitant administration of cimetidine on the pharmacokinetics of bupropion and its active metabolites were studied in 24 healthy young male volunteers. Following oral administration of a single 150-mg dose of bupropion, there were no statistically significant differences in Cmax, half-life, Tmax, AUC, or clearance of bupropion or its active metabolites between smokers and nonsmokers. The effects of cigarette smoking on the pharmacokinetics of bupropion were studied in 34 healthy male and female volunteers; 17 were chronic cigarette smokers and 17 were nonsmokers.

You can learn more in this article about Wellbutrin and reproductive health. This is because studies show some people have a lower tolerance to the effects of alcohol while taking Wellbutrin. Doctors recommend that you minimize or avoid alcohol during treatment with Wellbutrin. Get more information about Wellbutrin interactions, including with medications that may act as Wellbutrin inhibitors.

Hypersensitivity (Allergic) Reactions

In studies conducted in pregnant rats and rabbits, bupropion was administered orally during the period of organogenesis at doses of up to 450 and 150 mg/kg/day, respectively (approximately 10 and 6 times the MRHD, respectively, on a mg/m² basis). No increased risk for cardiovascular malformations overall has been observed after bupropion exposure during the first trimester. Data from the international bupropion Pregnancy Registry (675 first trimester exposures) and a retrospective cohort study using the United Healthcare database (1,213 first trimester exposures) did not show an increased risk for malformations overall. When bupropion was administered to pregnant rats during organogenesis, there was no evidence of fetal malformations at doses up to approximately 10 times the maximum recommended human dose (MRHD) of 450 mg/day. Data from epidemiological studies of pregnant women exposed to bupropion in the first trimester have not identified an increased risk of congenital malformations overall (see Data). In the rat study there was an increase in nodular proliferative lesions of the liver at doses of 100 to 300 mg/kg/day (approximately 2 to 6 times the MRHD on a mg/m² basis); lower doses were not tested.

The AUC of hydroxybupropion was unchanged, whereas Cmax of hydroxybupropion was increased by 50%. In a trial in healthy volunteers, efavirenz 600 mg once daily for 2 weeks reduced the AUC and Cmax of bupropion by approximately 55% and 34%, respectively. In another healthy volunteer trial, lopinavir 400 mg/ritonavir 100 mg twice daily decreased bupropion AUC and Cmax by 57%. In a healthy volunteer trial, ritonavir 100 mg twice daily reduced the AUC and Cmax of bupropion by 22% and 21%, respectively.