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Does Wellbutrin Cause Anxiety?

Posted on Wed, 17 Jun 2015

Question: I have been taking Wellbutrin HCL 50 mg and I called the doctor and told him it gave me more anxiety. He told me to cut it down to 25mg and I started doing that a few days ago. I now notice I feel very tired and have no energy. The doctor told me that taking Wellbutrin is like taking a high dose of caffeine. Is that why I feel like this because I cut down the amount of caffeine which gave me more energy????? Today I had caffeinated tea instead of decaf tea. Please advise

Answered by Dr. Chintan Solanki (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
better to stop/replace wellbutrin

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

Thanks for writing to us.I can understand your concern.

Anxiety,dry mouth, hyperventilation, irregular heartbeats, irritability, restlessness, shaking, shortness of breath, trouble sleeping are common side effects of wellbutrin. It is almost dose independent, tolerance may occur gradually.If you felt above symptoms only after starting wellbutrin they are side effects.

You are suffering from these type of side effects even after reducing the dose.
I do not believe that caffeine and wellbutirn work in same manner.Reduction in caffeine may cause tiredness.We need to confirm your problem either by stopping the wellbutrin or increasing the caffeine to previous dose.

In my opinion 25 mg is not at all useful for any psychiatric problem. So better to stop and start new drug according to need of your problem.

Let me know your psychiatric symptoms so I can give more comments.

Hope I have answered your query, I will be happy to help further.

Regards,
Dr.Chintan Solanki.

Note: For further guidance on mental health, Click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar