Stimulants The Buproprion (Wellbutrin) Megathread

[Crowquilled]

The Buproprion (Wellbutrin) Megathread

Bupropion (/bjuːˈproʊpi.ɒn/ bew-PROH-pee-on is a drug primarily used as an atypical antidepressant and smoking cessation aid. Marketed as Wellbutrin, Budeprion, Prexaton, Elontril, Aplenzin, or other trade names, it is one of the most frequently prescribed antidepressants in the United States. Marketed in lower-dose formulations as Zyban, Voxra, or other names, it is also widely used to reduce nicotine cravings by people who are trying to quit smoking. It is taken in the form of pills, and in the United States is available only by prescription.

Medically, bupropion serves as a non-tricyclic antidepressant fundamentally different from most commonly prescribed antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). It is an effective antidepressant on its own, but is also popular as an add-on medication in cases of incomplete response to first-line SSRI antidepressants. In contrast to many other antidepressants, it does not cause weight gain or sexual dysfunction. The most important side effect is an increase in risk for epileptic seizures, which caused the drug to be withdrawn from the market for some time and then caused the recommended dosage to be reduced. 300mg a day (for average body weight) has been shown to maintain the same 0.1% unprovoked seizure rate of the general population.

Bupropion affects a number of neurotransmitter systems, and its mechanisms of action are only partly understood. The primary pharmacological action of the drug is as a mild dopamine reuptake inhibitor and also a much weaker norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor as well as a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist. Chemically, bupropion belongs to the class of aminoketones and is similar in structure to stimulants such as cathinone and amfepramone, and to phenethylamines in general.

This is the place to post about your experiences and questions about buproprion, aka Wellbutrin!

See also the Negative Side Effects thread.

---
I've read several things on the internet saying bupropion(wellbutrin) diminishes the coke high.Something to do with wellbutrin blocking cocaine from getting to the dopamine transporters that it needs to be binding to.

So, my question is, if this is true, this will happen only when you're still taking wellbutrin, or even after days you've not been taking it, it would still affect the cocaine effect?

Bupropion hcl is not good to mix with any other stimulants typically. I would choose to take bupropion hcl or other stimulants, not both.

 

[xxl]

It is recommended not to mix the two because they both produce higher blood pressure and everything that raises blood pressure is to be avoided while taking stims.

The reason wellbutrin dominishes the high from coke is explainable in terms of baseline. While on wellbutrin your dopamine levels are raised. Do a line and they will be raised again, but from an already high-ish level. In other words what counts for a high is the vertical distance between starting point and end point. Start as low as possible and go as high as possible.

People have reported a diminished coke high with eg Modafinil and deprenyl, if I remember right.

Wellbutrin affects dopamine levels in the long term, and not just on the day you're taking it right? In that case it should affect the coke high in the long term too.

All this is theoretical, but if you can help it avoid the combo.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Bupropion hcl is not good to mix with any other stimulants typically. I would choose to take bupropion hcl or other stimulants, not both.

 

[Crowquilled]

i've stopped taking wellbutrin about 5 days ago, but i've not stopped with coke

do you think the effects of the bupropion are still too high on me to be advisable to stop snorting for this reason alone?

 

[xxl]

Difficult to say whether 5 days make a difference, but look what I've just picked from Wikipedia: "Bupropion lowers the seizure threshold".

In other words it increases the likelyhood of your suffering a seizure. Now coke does that too. Coke + bupropion = 2x (4x?) the risk of fishing out.

If you must do coke do it in small quantities and don't drive!

 

[paranoid android]

I stopped taking bupropion about 4 days once before i did a gram of blow the summer and i was fine. But i also take 3 different anti-seizure meds so it would be damn hard to give me any kind of bad reaction. I do remember feeling more paranoid on the coke then usual but that could very well have been the setting and nothing else.

 

[Crowquilled]

Difficult to say whether 5 days make a difference, but look what I've just picked from Wikipedia: "Bupropion lowers the seizure threshold".

In other words it increases the likelyhood of your suffering a seizure. Now coke does that too. Coke + bupropion = 2x (4x?) the risk of fishing out.

If you must do coke do it in small quantities and don't drive!

the seizure risk is that big even though i've stopped taking it?

if so, how long without taking bupropion it's safe to say it's not dangerously interfering anymore?

 

[xxl]

I don't know but it could be weeks if buproprion works like SRIs. After taking SRIs for example you must wait quite a long time to take some meds like selegiline. I'm not sure buproprion has this lingering effect though, it's not a anti-depressant as such. Your prescribing doc should be able to tell you how long buproprion stays active after you stop, you don't have to tell him you can't wait for the effects of buproprion to end. Anyway if you have the coke you will probably not be able to wait. One thing you can do is to take a single dose of valium (diazepam) before your sessions. That should minimize the seizure risk.

 

[Vevnard]

small amounts of coke work much better while taking buproprion,have found large amounts
cause headache,rapid heartbeat,not enjoyable at all,took small dose of xanax and gabapentin
leveled out was able to sleep

 

[Lopez]

is bupropion a muscle relaxant?

it antagonizes nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. does this mean that it can block recovery of muscles?

or is that only the function of muscarinic receptors?

 

[XTCAKE]

Buproprion (Welbutrin) is an SNRI. I honestly had no idea it was classified as a muscle relaxant.
I know that when I was briefly prescribed it, it helped a great deal with my mild OCD issues..it made me extremely organized and had somewhat of an amphetamine effect on my brain.
I am glad to be off of it, though.

 

[THC2LSD]

Bupropion is not a muscle relaxant or a SNRI, it's a very weak dopamine/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. It's a stimulant about as strong as caffeine, maybe weaker.I think to have a muscle relaxant effect it must block the muscaric receptors, which bupropion isn't very strong as.

 

[XTCAKE]

Buproprions most common medicinal usage is for an antidepressant.

It would most likely FEEL somewhat stimulating to someone suffering from fatigue due to depression.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

No, bupropion is not a muscle relaxant. It's an antidepressant (such as the brand name "Wellbutrin"), a smoking cessation aid ("Zyban"), and a very very mild stimulant. It works differently from other anti-depressants. Look it up on Wikipedia or somewhere.

 

[XTCAKE]

Bupropion is not a muscle relaxant or a SNRI, it's a very weak dopamine/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. It's a stimulant about as strong as caffeine, maybe weaker.I think to have a muscle relaxant effect it must block the muscaric receptors, which bupropion isn't very strong as.

How isn't it an SNRI?
It is a serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor.
That is what the acronym SNRI stands for.
Unless it was just changed magically today.

"Weak" or not, it is what it is.

 

[Znegative]

It's a DNRI dopamine norepinephrine reputable inhibitor

 

[Swimmingdancer]

How isn't it an SNRI?
It is a serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor.
That is what the acronym SNRI stands for.
Unless it was just changed magically today.

"Weak" or not, it is what it is.

It's my understanding that bupropion is an atypical antidepressant and is not classified with any others. It's not fully understood how it works but one of it's pharmacological actions is thought to involve norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibition, and it binds selectively to the dopamine transporter. That's not an SNRI - seratonin NRI.

it antagonizes nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. does this mean that it can block recovery of muscles?

or is that only the function of muscarinic receptors?

I'm not sure whether the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors involve muscle relaxation, it sounds almost like the opposite actually. The neuromuscular receptors are found in the neuromuscular junctions of somatic muscles and stimulation of these receptors causes muscular contraction. I'm not sure whether the contractions would be relaxing or tensing? And I don't know if bupropion stimulates or causes these contractions. I do know that it is not prescribed as a muscle relaxant or a pain-killer, and that studies have actually shown it to be ineffective for these purposes (aside from pain with a neurological cause).
Whereas muscarinic receptors are activated by muscarine, nicotinic receptors are opened by nicotine - hence the name "nicotinic". That's presumably why bupropion decreases the desire for nicotine and is used a smoking cessation aid. There are also neuronal receptors, which are found in the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system.
What do you mean by "block recovery" of muscles?

 

[XTCAKE]

Ok. It is definitely not a muscle relaxor, OP.
Mods, where you at? Questions answered, I hope!

 

[Geaux Tigers!]

I was recently prescribed Wellbutrin XL 300mg. for mood. I enjoy dipping tobacco. I know bupropion is an antagonist at the α3β4 receptor.

Will this reduce the pleasure I get from nicotine? I know it should reduce cravings.

I found this on PubMed which makes me hopeful:

Finally, acute experimenter-administered nicotine enhanced brain reward function equally in all groups, indicating that bupropion does not alter the reward-facilitating effects of experimenter-administered nicotine.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17561823

Chronic bupropion administration via subcutaneous osmotic minipump had no effect on nicotine self-administration, but attenuated nicotine-induced enhancement of brain reward function and enhanced the motivational properties of a previously nicotine-associated conditioned stimulus. Thus, it is unlikely that chronic bupropion exerts anti-smoking effects by attenuating the primary or conditioned reinforcing effects of nicotine. Rather, preclinical investigations suggest that bupropion attenuates nicotine-induced enhancement of brain reward function and reverses the anhedonic, somatic, and neurochemical correlates of nicotine withdrawal.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18584463

Bupropion pre-treatment failed to exert a "nicotine-like" action and also failed to attenuate the orderly dose-related discrimination function of nicotine (0.05–0.4 mg/kg SC) in rats. Using the conditioned taste aversion procedure to assess the aversive stimulus properties of nicotine, a function implicated in the regulation of nicotine intake, bupropion (3, 10 and 30 mg/kg IP) pre-treatment failed to modify the aversive effects produced by a threshold dose of nicotine (0.2 mg/kg SC).

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359644603028903

Anyone have personal anecdotes here? Obviously, I'm not lazy. I'm doing my own research but I'd like the input of Bluelighters. Thank you.

n. Current studies show that
BP facilitates the acquisition of nicotine conditioned
place preference in rats, further suggesting that BP enhances the rewarding properties of nicotine. And vice
versa, that nicotine pre-treatment enhances the locomotor activity elicited by BP [34]. BP is responsible
for increased locomotor activity in freely moving rats
through mechanisms typically involving DA reuptake
inhibition and blockade of AChRs [35], potentiating
the behavioral effects of nicotine [34].

http://donnageczi.com/pdfs/IOS-Press-Journal-Library/support-files/jpb.pdf

^^^ Very interesting paper!

 

[bzzsdd]

I took wellbutrin 300 mg for a couple months (for depression). i smoked cigs pretty much the whole time, but one thing i noticed that the cravings were few and far between. i only needed 1 cig at a time as opposed to now where i can smoke 2-3 in a row because 1 will leave me wanting more. the only thing i really noticed though when i was on the wellbutrin is that they made cigs taste like garbage sometimes or i would be smoking one and just want to toss it halfway through. when i was on it i felt like i smoked cigs more out of habit and less out of headaches and actual nicotine addiction if that makes sense.. but i would still catch a buzz from a cig when it had been a while.