Posted by Racer on August 31, 2006, at 12:20:59
In reply to prozac wellbutrin, posted by Mix6 on August 30, 2006, at 23:00:27
On second thought, I couldn't be civil...
OK, as far as it goes, Prozac/Wellbutrin sounds like a pretty good combo to me. I'd give it a try, if you can stick it out. It might turn out to be The Right Stuff for you, and it's only a few weeks to find out, right?
But I do urge you to try to find that second opinion, and try to get a doctor you feel more comfortable with. I wouldn't feel comfortable with the doctor you've described, either -- and I distrust her dx, too.
Wellbutrin is different from the SSRIs and most other ADs out there, in that it tends to give a response earlier on than the others. I know within a week or so I was singing in the kitchen, and while my singing voice would not make that a good thing, what it said about my mood was good. The fact that you were feeling better after starting Wellbutrin DURING A 3 WEEK VACATION FROM WORK, well, I hardly think that's reason enough to lower the dang dose to nearly nothing! Of course you'd feel worse again. Sheesh. That's not a sign of bipolar, if you ask me -- that's a sign of an idiot with a prescription pad...
OK, that might not be entirely fair. The fact is, it's best to use the lowest effective dose, with any med, of any kind. The problem is, with psych drugs, there's a delay between dose changes and response, so it can be difficult to figure out what's cause and what's effect, you know? It does sound to me, though, as if your doctor jumped the gun on this one, lowering your dose too far, too soon after starting it. That's not all that helpful.
My own experience with Wellbutrin, by the way, is that lowering and then raising it again wasn't a good thing. When I first went up to 450mg of XL, I had a pretty good response. When it was lowered to 300, to try Ritalin, my depression increased -- and raising it back to 450 did not bring back the same response. Sure, I'm not as bad off as I was at 300, but I'm also not back to where I was at 450 the first time. I hope that's situational, or psychosomatic, or something individual to me. I hope it isn't the case for others as well.
Anyway, my general advice really is in the first couple of sentences of this post: try the Prozac/Wellbutrin combo, and look for a second opinion from a doctor who can take you on if you're more comfortable with him/her.
Good luck.
poster:Racer
thread:681642
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060825/msgs/681717.html