Posted by Tomatheus on September 30, 2006, at 23:15:59
In reply to Nardil + Wellbutrin: URGENT!, posted by ace on September 27, 2006, at 22:03:40
Hi Ace,
I'm sorry for not responding to your message sooner. I've been feeling pretty crappy for the past week or so, and it's been several days since I've read any of the messages on this board.
I've taken both Wellbutrin and Nardil, but I never tried taking the two meds together, so my guess is that you'll probably find my response to be of rather limited usefulness. When I took Wellbutrin as monotherapy, I didn't get much of a response out of it at any dose (I was prescribed 150, 300, and 400 mg/day of the SR version). I did notice an extremely weak and hardly detectable antidepressant effect at all three dose levels, but it wasn't consistent and didn't seem to have much of a stimulating effect. I'd say that the only robust, consistent effects that I got from taking Wellbutrin as monotherapy were lots of nausea and appetite suppression. I did notice a partial antidepressant effect (albeit a somewhat weak one) without any drug-induced appetite suppression from combining Wellbutrin with lithium, but the lithium ultimately ended up affecting me adversely, triggering panic attacks that began several weeks after I stopped taking the Wellbutrin.
I know that you're probably not finding what I've written to be very encouraging right now, but perhaps you'll find the fact that my response to Wellbutrin alone was clearly different from my response to Wellbutrin+lithium to be of some relevance to your situation. In other words, not only is it possible that your response to Wellbutrin might be more favorable than my response to the medication was, but there is also a good chance that combining Wellbutrin with Nardil might produce a sort of synergistic effect that would be far more robust than taking either of the two meds alone (of course, the two meds could also interact with one another in a not-so-good way). I never would have predicted that Wellbutrin and lithium would have worked even remotely well together based on the way that each medication affected me when taken alone, but as I wrote, combining the two meds did produce a partial antidepressant effect -- the second best effect that I've felt to date (behind my partially homemade enteric-coated version of the silica-gel fresh Australian Nardil, of course). So, I wouldn't feel discouraged by my extremely weak response to Wellbutrin monotherapy.
If I were in your position, though, I'd probably try staying at 150 mg/day of Wellbutrin (in combination with the Nardil, of course) for at least three weeks to see what kind of response I'd get at that dose. Of course, staying at a low dose of a medication only results in prolongued misery if you're not going to respond to that lower dose, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility of getting a good response out of 150 mg/day of Wellbutrin, especially with the Nardil. Sometimes less can be more, as the cliche goes.
At any rate, I wish you luck in whatever you decide to do. I'm not sure that you'll find my message to be very helpful, but I wanted to acknowledge your message and try to help in any way that I could, especially considering how helpful you've been to me in the past.
Tomatheus
> Begin this combo on Sunday...titrate to 300mg within 3 days
>
> anyone one with MAOI experience taking this drug pls tell me your experiences!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> 90mg Nardil and staying strong...............
>
> Ace!
poster:Tomatheus
thread:689749
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060927/msgs/690697.html