Posted by Cam W. on March 27, 2001, at 20:56:31
In reply to Wellbutrin....message for CAM, posted by jacquie on March 27, 2001, at 19:35:16
Jacquie - Thanks for the welcome back.
Wellbutrin SR has a half-life of about 21 hours. This may give you adequate antidepressant blood levels, but the manufacturer says that the Wellbutrin SR should be taken twice daily. The SR version does come in a 100mg strength and I have seen people successfully take Wellbutrin SR 100mg twice daily. This may be enough to give you adequate antidepressant and anti-ADD activity. The doses need to be taken at least 8 hours apart. You could take 100mg when you first get up in the morning, or if you don't get up until later in the day, you could set your alarm for 6am, take your dose and go back to sleep. The next dose could be taken at 3pm or 4pm and this should not cause insomnia. I use to take 150mg at 5am and my next dose at 3pm (sometimes 4pm, but never later) and I had no problems with falling asleep at bedtime.
Even though 150mg of Wellbutrin SR once daily may give you adequate antidepressant blood levels, a twice daily dosing would give you a better steady state level of the drug. The people that I have seen take 150mg once daily and augmenting it with an SSRI didn't seem to have that great of antidepressant protection (but these people were treatment resistant to begin with).
If 100mg of the SR twice daily does not give you good enough antidepressant effect, your doctor could try adding a small dose of Celexa. This might help, but I still think that a twice daily dosing of Wellbutrin SR is needed. This can work for both the ADD and depression
As for the Adrafranil or Olmifon, I do not know anything about these drugs, so I could not give you any advice that I'd be comfortable with. They are not available in Canada and I haven't done much reading on them.
Ask your doc about 100mg of Wellbutrin SR twice daily, with the second dose at 3pm or 4pm and the first dose early in the morning. You should be able to tolerate this regimen and it can be augmented with a small dose of an SSRI if need be.
Let me know what your doc thinks about this. Some people can get away with less than 300mg per day.
I hope that this is of some help. - Cam
poster:Cam W.
thread:57711
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010327/msgs/57724.html