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Re: Budeprion (Generic) vs. Wellbutrin

Posted by sheofthemoon on August 22, 2007, at 11:52:28

In reply to Re: Budeprion (Generic) vs. Wellbutrin, posted by Michelle Schultz on June 8, 2007, at 5:53:51

Hi Everyone,

I used to take Budeprion XL 300mg (TEVA) until four days ago. My experience with the generic was not a pleasant one.

A summary of my own side effects: complete loss of appetite, extreme mood swings, hallucinations and heightened touch and vision (note: not better, just more intense), spacial distortion, dizziness, "zoning out", sexual dysfunction, paranoia, significantly increased desire to commit suicide, severe depression, extreme tearfulness lasting hours, alternating with a feeling of numbness. This is the short version. Everything below is an explanation of these side effects as far as how much they impacted my life. Be forewarned: it's a novel!

Within the first four days of starting Budeprion XL I had hallucinations and heightened sensory experiences of touch and sight. It takes a quarter of a page to tell the whole story but this is how my psychiatrist summed it up. This is supposed to be one of the "rare side effects" of the drug. My doctor explained that hallucinations are thought to be caused by excess dopamine in the brain, and since bupropion is a dopamine agonist, it is possible this could explain my experience. However I am now on my fourth pill of my new Bupropion XL 300mg (WATS) rx, and have not had this experience. Nor did I on the 100mg, 3x a day original formulation bupropion I took initially which was also made by Teva.

Loss of appetite is completely uncharacteristic of me. It has never happened, even when I had food poisoning, I still had the hunger signal but couldn't eat. I love food as a general rule. While taking the Budeprion, I would forget to eat, not have any hunger signal from my body at all even if I went more than a day without food. When I had my favorite foods in front of me I would feel nauseous at the thought of eating. Towards the end of the month even my morning coffee appeared disgusting to me. My doctor expressed concern because while taking bupropion it is very important to eat on a relatively consistent schedule multiple times a day to help avoid the seizure risk. I felt I could not.

Extreme mood swings while taking this medicine had me going from comfortably balanced emotionally and very productive at work (which happened four days of the month), to euphoric with very pingy nervous energy and too distractable to work at my most effective; to completely, distraughtly depressed, tearful for hours which caused very painful headaches and a feeling of physical sickness, and also the feeling of being too weighted down to move, more so than the "lead weight" symptoms of atypical depression, which under normal circumstances I can deal with effectively enough to continue on with daily activities. In this case I missed four days of work.

Spacial distortion includes not only altered depth perception but things appeared bigger, closer to me, or otherwise disproportionate to how they "should have been". That persisted off and on for the entire time I was on the medication, exactly one month. I haven't experienced it yet on my new rx.

I "zoned out" especially when starting the Budeprion XL but the side effect persisted although not as noticeably for the entire month. It was specifically noticeable when people pointed it out as they were trying to talk to me, or had to repeat what they said to me.

Sexual dysfunction included significant decrease in desire and responsiveness throughout the month, which my fiance noticed but I did not, because my attentions were focused on dealing with the other side effects and trying to find a healthy evenness.

I fought with paranoia moreso than usual. I haven't been diagnosed with clinical paranoia, it's usually so little of an issue because under normal circumstances I can think and reason my way out of it very effectively. Fighting with this consistently and nearly all the time became steadily more of an issue towards the end of the month. I am still dealing with it as the remnants of the Budeprion are leaving my body, or so I tell myself because there is no clinical proof that this is true.

The increased depression and suicidal tendencies go hand in hand and are related to the mood swings. The four days I missed work were the worst of the month, and I feel they were the cumulative result, seeing as they were the last days of that rx. I had phone sessions with a doctor three of the four days. The first day I had been in my psychiatrist's office. The last day, at which point I was hopeful that the next day I could return to work, I requested an extra session asap which would be very early the next morning, before I would return to work.

There were no genuine suicide attempts to land me in the hospital although it was suggested that I go. I have fought with ideation before, but there were times this month where I had to consistently talk my way down from it.

So that's it. That's my novel about my experience with Budeprion XL last month. I feel like I am doing better now, four days into the new rx. I guess I may see whether the pill was really the culprit or not, over time. I just thought this info was worth posting here, and I saw the article written on The People's Pharmacy website, which I know many of you wrote into. The article says that the FDA "assured them that it will analyze the drug and the reports it received." The link to this:

www.peoplespharmacy.com/editorial/generic_antidepressant_raises_questions.asp

I have researched into what could be the difference in inactive ingredients between the two generics and the brand, but with no luck. I found the inactives on Wellbutrin XL and that's it.

I hope that everybody is feeling better and moving forward much easier now, and I wish everyone the best! Thanks for your posts which helped me realize that this could be an issue!


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poster:sheofthemoon thread:397165
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070815/msgs/777795.html