Posted by Viridis on August 7, 2004, at 0:59:24
In reply to On second thought. . ., posted by sb417 on August 5, 2004, at 23:38:08
It's perfectly safe to cut Wellbutrin SR -- I checked with the manufacturer, since I had such a bad reaction to the 150 mg dose. The medication is imbedded in a slowly-dissolving wax (the slow release has nothing to do with the pill coating), and there's only a slight increase in release rate for cut pills, just in the 1st 15 minutes. They even faxed me graphs of the pharmacokinetics of divided vs. intact pills, and the rate of release was nearly identical.
They do recommend, however, that the pills be divided close to the time of use, since they absorb water from the atmosphere and can lose potency over time once split.
Half the dose gave me about half the side effects, which were still intolerable. But there's no danger at all in splitting the pills. They just discourage it because, among other things, it's hard to achieve exact dosing that way.
poster:Viridis
thread:374353
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040805/msgs/374957.html