Why would bupropion take a number of weeks to start working

[endotropic]

The cathinones are a class of stimulant drugs similar to the amphetamines but with (usually) shorter effects than amphetamines have. Feel free to point out to me a cathinone SSRI. Wellbutrin (bupropion) acts as the worst possible cathinone stimulant I've yet to try but is a cathinone stimulant, not an SSRI, none the less. The whole "low 5-HT levels cause depression and are cured by SSRIs" argument has, thankfully, now been discredited. Not only do low levels of serotonin not cause depression, but the SSRIs don't help cure it (in fact, they have been shown to work slightly less well than a placebo sugar pill) and can cause suicidal ideation sometimes leading up to actual suicide, flat affect / not caring about anything, and can make orgasm damn near impossible. If you take SSRIs and think they help your depression, just remember: The placebo effect is all in your head.

Actually cathinones aren't stimulants, they have been shown to work slightly less well than a placebo sugar pill. See we can all make up unfounded claims and pass them off as fact. Why don't you provide a reference, or better yet a review of available clinical data before you come back with that "placebo works better for depression than SSRI's" line again.

 

[Seppi]

@OP: several weeks is required because antidepressants work through pharmacogenomic/transcriptional mechanisms (within the nuclear membrane) as opposed to standard pharmacodynamic mechanisms at the postsynaptic membrane. I.e., serotonin is much less relevant to the effect of SSRIs than their signaling cascade through postsynaptic 5-HT receptors and subsequent effects on gene expression.

On an unrelated note, I'm not aware of any cathinone substituent which is a TAAR1 agonist; they're quite different from most substituted amphetamines simply because of that.