Wellbutrin – Anxiety Treatment Concerns
Wellbutrin and anxiety
You are either taking or considering taking Wellbutrin – or just curious – and want to know if it is an effective treatment for anxiety. Or you might be concerned about its potential to cause anxiety as a side effect.
Let’s go through the details.
If you’re interested in ideas on how to deal with anxiety in general, see The Top 25 Anxiety Tips.
What is Wellbutrin?
Wellbutrin is a popular antidepressant with a variety of therapeutic effects. Beyond its role in treating depression, it may also help with smoking cessation and with attention deficit disorder. The key to its action lies in the neurochemicals it works on.
Wellbutrin is a norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitor, or NDRI. That means it increases the activity of those neurochemicals in the brain. This is significantly different from the most commonly used antidepressants, the SSRIs like Prozac and Zoloft. The SSRIs work mostly on serotonin.
Wellbutrin is pretty much as effective as the SSRIs for treating depression, but – on a chemical levels – actually acts a lot like ADHD treatments. It is even eventually converted to a form of amphetamine by the body.
The different action of Wellbutrin means that, as a medication, it has certain advantages and disadvantages.
Pros
Wellbutrin has less rates of weight gain and sexual dysfunction, which are quite common side effects of the standard SSRI medications like Prozac and Zoloft.
Cons
On the negative, Wellbutrin may not be as effective for the treatment of anxiety and may even cause it at higher rates.
From a biochemical standpoint, at least theoretically, norepinephrine is associated with anxiety.
Wellbutrin as an anxiety treatment
First, is Wellbutrin an effective treatment for anxiety, or for depression with anxiety? It’s hard to say. There is very limited research into the ability of Wellbutrin to treat anxiety disorders. Some pilot studies have shown similar efficacy to the SSRIs for this use. And some have shown worse efficacy.
A recent, meta-analysis, for instance, of 10 studies including a total of 2122 patients with depression and high levels of anxiety showed that response was somewhat better to SSRIs than Wellbutrin.
There is a lack of evidence either for or against the use of Wellbutrin for anxiety. Since there are studies that specifically have shown the efficacy of SSRIs to treat anxiety disorders, and no major similar studies for Wellbutrin, it is not commonly used for that type of treatment.
Also, there may be, of course, no major studies into Wellbutrin as an anxiety treatment simply because clinicians believe that it wouldn’t work well.
Wellbutrin as a cause of anxiety?
On the other hand, Wellbutrin definitely can cause anxiety. But it isn’t alone in doing so – anxiety is a not uncommon side effect from antidepressants in general. It is likely, however, that Wellbutrin causes anxiety more often and possibly more serious anxiety.
Getting the exact data is not easy and depends on where you look. If you define anxiety as simply “nervousness,” one analysis showed that Wellbutrin causes less anxiousness than Prozac and Effexor, about the same amounts as Paxil, and more than Zoloft, Remeron and Celexa.
If you, however, look at a composite of anxiety, agitation, akathisia (or feeling unsettled) and hostility, another study showed that Wellbutrin is worse than all the other antidepressants. That study showed 13.9% of people who used it had those side effects. This is three times the amount compared to people taking Paxil and Zoloft.
Another study argued that anxiety response to Wellbutrin is dose dependent. It said that at 150mg, the medication is about the same as placebo, with increasing issues at higher doses.
Patient experiences online tend to show that Wellbutrin can cause quite significant anxiety, especially during the first weeks of treatment. Some users say that the anxiety can be really, really bad. On the other hand, those who are likely to speak up online tend to not always represent the average response.
Related Articles:
- Wellbutrin’s Side Effects
- Why am I Depressed?
- Antidepressants: The Pros and Cons
- Treating Treatment Resistant Depression
- Xanax vs Ativan for Anxiety
Immediate Depression Relief
End Anxiety and Panic Attacks
Panic Miracle: Panic & Anxiety Cure
Social Anxiety Secrets – The doctor speaks
Hi,
Thank you for an interesting article. One question! What’s the title of the study you use as reference under the headline “Wellbutrin anxiety cause?” The sentence I’m referring to is “another study showed that Wellbutrin is worse than all the other antidepressants”. I’d like to look closer on that one! Thanks.
/Johannes, Sweden.
I thought it was standard practice for self respecting bloggers and content writers to include references to any cited material. It’s not difficult to include the URL of a study’s abstract or full text.
Whoah, if this is the cause of taking this medicine then I would rather use the natural medication like herbal medicines or just do it by exercising.
Natural medication is cheaper than this and most health professionals recommend it.
Been taking generic Wellbutrin for 2 weeks, the 150mg dose. Havent been able to get myself to go to work for 3 days due to extreme anxiety. Was unmedicated before for 2+ years without this issue. Anxiety is a very real side-effect and can be debilitating even from the 150 mg
I quit smoking 2.5 weeks ago. I asked my Dr. for Wellbutrin cause it helps with the quitting. He prescribed 200mg of Wellbutrin ST every 8 hours. I have been very anxious, but I know that a big part of that is the nicotine withdrawal, hard to breathe, etc. Yesterday I decided to cut back to 200mg twice a day. Haven’t been sleeping well either, so we will see how this goes. Less than a week into the Wellbutrin is too soon to know if the side effect stabalizes.
There are many mixed reactions to wellbutrin, for some it triggers anxiety and others a feeling of serenity. its weird. I wish these companies would do extra research – i mean they are making billions and cant get to the cause of this!
I began taking generic Wellbutrin XL at 150 mg once daily in the am. At first I was taking it with Cymbalta, but that was too much norepinephrine for me. I do notice that I have a little bit of nervousness, but as long as I don’t drink caffeinated drinks, it’s not too bad. I do still drink wine at night and as long as I do not drink too much i am just fine as well.
What is good about this drug compared to the Lexapro and the Cymbalta is that it does not affect my sex drive, I am sleeping through the night, I have lost a few pounds, and I am generally happier overall except when my husband pissed me off. i did have anxiety awhile back, but it seems it has not returned to the way it was before.
Have been taking generic Wellbutrin 150 XL for 5 years, and a lower dose for 3 previous years. Started for depression, but it treated my ADD so I am more focused, and less picky or anxious. Way better for me than SSRI’s which made me suicidal. Both of my brothers got extremely suicidal and manic on Lexapro – bad news. I would say I am on the serene side with Wellbutrin. The life issues I am dealing with should be overwhelmng. While I am “whelmed” I am also pretty sunny in outlook.
I have only been taking this medication for 4 days now. Very first thing today I had been driving myself to the ER. I had been told that I was experiencing unwanted side effects of the drug and should stop taking it. Unfortunately, It did work with the smoking… this makes me extremely sad.
I’ve been on Wellbutrin for 5 years. I have memory loss, anxiety, paranoia. I have to get off this drug. The only reason I’ve kept on it is because I had zero energy without it. I think all antidepressents are bad news. I wish they were as illegal as street drugs. What’s the difference really? There is none. The pushers are just better dressed.
Oh, and I’ve never stopped having suicidal fantasies on this drug either.
Hey, I have taken wellbutrin for almost exactly 6 months. It definitely lifted me from my depression, for which i am thankful. However, I am in common with some of you who have had increased anxiety, agitation, just anger and nervousness in general, honestly. I am afraid to go off it as the depression sets in even if it is just a weekend without the wellbutrin. However, I used to take zoloft which seemed ok, then cymbalta which did nothing, I was just tired of the side effects. My goodness…I just want to be a fully functioning person, always…have a lot who depend on me. Are there thoughts about combining wellbutrin with somthing else or going in another direction?
My gratitude…I hate feeling like I do every day, the depression if I don’t take it for a few days, or the anxiety/agitation should I take it several days in a row. Any thoughts are so welcome. Thanks.
I also have nervousness and a strange energy with Wellbutrin, but it has genuinely lifted me out of a painful depression. And if I don’t take it, I sink back in., My doctor is perscribing (just today) Neurontin 30g (very small does) to help with the side effects. Apparently it has a slight calming efffect. I also see some people taking Xanax with Welbutrin to calm the agitated feeling. I would suggest you ask your doctor about both options. One of the two is likely to work. I am starting on the Neurontin next week–I’ll let you know how I feel. Good luck my friend. The nervousness is better than the depression, but I do want to tamp it down and my doctor assures me it’s doable.
Excuse me, I meant to write “30g (very small dose)…”
Pardon the typo.
I have bad generalized anxiety and take effexor (150mg). That seemed to help but was causing a decrease in sex drive so my Dr. prescribed Wellbutrin SR (150mg) to help with the sex drive. My sex drive is back and that’s great but now I feel anxious most of the day now. Completely undoes what I am taking effexor for! Feel like I can’t win. :-(
Thank you for posting this. I have been struggling with a severe anxiety over doom and gloom and was very concerned about where it came from . I recently increased my Wellbutrin dose from 300mg a day to 450mg. Knowing this is a possible cause makes it alot easier to accept and shake off. I will talk to my doctor about this side effect now.
If you have anxiety or even just a little bit of anxiety problems I HIGHLY recommend you do not take Wellbutrin. You’ll be practically as parioniod as a meth-head much of the time.
I find this very interesting. I just went to my doctor today requesting something for anxiety. She refused to prescribe an anti-anxiety, but instead wrote an Rx for Wellbutrin. She suggested “yoga or meditation” for my anxiety, What a joke that is! I am a mother of 3 with a full time job and a student, when do I have time for yoga?! I dropped my Rx off today to be filled, but now I’m even more anxious to take it!
I am not looking forward to more anxiety.
I have been on Wellbutrin XL 300mg for 6 years. For the first year or so I think they really helped. But now I don’t kknow if it is due to the medication or what I too have terrible anxiety, paranoia, and memory loss. I am really depressed and have lost any motivation I may have had. I can’t get anything done because I get so overwhelemed I just become paralyzed. I hate everything and am so miserable. I asked my doctor about getting off the meds twice in the last 6 months but both times has said that I should wait till I’m not dealling with so many stress factors in my life…if I wait till that is resolved, I’ll never be off them. Heck, I don’t understand, it’s not like the meds are helping me. I hate that I am taking this stuff and worry about the long term side effects. Will I ever be ok? Do anyone think that herbal remedies might really help?
I was on cymbalta 30mg once a day for anxiety. It worked great on the anxiety! But the med left me numb very numb to anything going on around me it was like a was a zombie. after a few weeks I started having suicidal thoughts. Which was strange for me since i was so so afarid of dying. The cymbalta had me in tears all the time and i was i such a mind fog. I felt like i was losing my mind. I finally told the dr what was going on with this med and now has switched me over to Wellbutrin XL, which now I am very scared to take because I have such bad anxiety. Should I still give this new med a try??
Cecy – I do NOT recommend wellbutrin for anxiety. I learned the hard way. it will for absolute certain make you more edgy. I suffer from anxiety. I know it’s a cliche, but do you exercise yourself to exhaustion? have you tried that? It does work. Don’t drink caffeine, eat bananas – they’re calming. Try acupuncture. It works, too. supplement 5HTP is calming – but read about it – dosage and duration of time taking it – educate yourself to calming things. If there is a good acupuncturist around you – go to them. Read reviews online to find one in your area. Ask if they do chinese herbs. These herbs you boil at home are strong. they work. try everything you can before wellburtin. and wean yourself of sugar – very important! good luck. on top of all else, wellbutrin is expensive and the generic is not the same. The drug is the same in the generic but the dissolving mechanism is not the same. if you do take wellbutrin – do not take generic. consumerlab.com posted an article about this. I experienced it firsthand, too. Be careful, friend. try yoga, meditate, exercise…. try all else first. Peace.
I just started Taking generic form of ,bupropion hydrochloride XL today. 150mg. I need to hear some positive feedback from people that have used this for awhile. Thank you.
Gail, don’t worry. Think about who come on to these pages to speak their mind. It’s not the ones who are content and happy about their medication. Not in general, at least. Bupropion is a drug I’ve been on for many years now, in high a dose (450 mg) together with Lyrica in low dose and I’ve been really well for a long time now. Anxiety is down to a minimum, I sleep better, I have more energy and even lost quite a few pounds when I started taking it. So don’t worry: it’s just as good or bad a anxiolytic as the next antidepressant out there. In clinical trials it’s even “en par” with escitalopram as a treatment for generalized anxiety disorder. /Johannes, Sweden
Bill – You were so right!! By the third day on this stuff i had a full blown anxiety attack that lasted for hours. Also I had blurred vision as well. I called the dr to report the issues and I was told that the med had not been in my system long enough to cause the side effects I was having. But I am not buying that. I really do think you are right about finding other ways to clam myself down. I thank you so much for you advise and wish me well on my journey!
Thank you Johannes Dahl, I appreciate your honesty. I am sorry to say that I have started drinking wine at night. It seems to calm me down. I had to leave church today because I just couldn’t sit there. I could feel my face going numb. I just know I have a tumor in my abdomen or something. I know that sounds stupid, but I drink the wine to help me forget. Tonight I drank too much and I can tell. I just want this pain to stop, I used to be a bubbly happy person, but now I am just a boring lowlife.
Thank you Johannes Dahl. I appreciate the positive comments. I have been taking the generic form of Wellbutrin for a couple of months now, for anxiety. My doctor said it wasn’t really prescribed all that much for anxiety alone, but worked for some people. I reacted very badly to Zoloft many years ago, and have not been on a medication since then. I was very fearful to take another medication. But my anxiety was in such a state, and I wasn’t in a position to take other action (such as yoga). The Wellbutrin has helped considerably. I find myself among those for whom it gives some measure of serenity. I still have moments, but it has taken the edge off and gives me the space and focus to find calm. I was also drinking to “shut my mind down,” and it was beginning to worry me. I am grateful for this medication, and for a physician willing to think outside the box.
Lyle, was curious about when you first startted taking wellbutrin. I started 3 days ago at 150 mg to increase to 300 in a week. My anxiety seems worse than normal, but I have read that this is common until it gets in your system. Did you experience this? I too drank to calm myself but gave that up about four years ago and have just had the guts to tell my doctor about it. Any info would be helpful. Than you.
In response to Ginger, I took both Celexa and Wellbutrin. Initially, I was just on Celexa, but unfortunately, the side effects of lessened sex drive was making me nuts. So my doctor suggested taking Wellbutrin to offset the sex problem. It worked! My sex drive came back! This was a good combo for me. But as with any drugs you want to check with your doctor. Oh, I have since weaned myself off all of my meds. I did it VERY slowly. I literally got a pill cutter and cut the pills into eight pieces. I started taking 7/8 of my pills, then three weeks later 6/8 of my pills, then another three weeks on 5/8 etc… until I was practically eating crumbs. It took me almost seven months to get off both drugs, but since I did it so gradually I had absolutely no withdrawal symptoms AT ALL. Don’t hop on and off your medications!! I can’t stress this enough. It is so dangerous to do this as it throws your bodies chemicals into chaos. Please be careful, and mindful. You have just the one body, please be gentle with it. :)
Wellbutrin has helped me with my anxiety tremendously! I had terrible anxiety before Wellbutrin, within a few days of taking it I was so happy and finally anxiety free and I have so much energy.
I suffered from depression and anxiety for years. I took Celexa for 5 years and although it helped me deal with the anxiety, I felt no joy, and it did affect my sex drive.
I was on Wellbutrin for a year, and while it helped with the depression and my sex drive improved, I dealt with anxiety.
I weaned myslef odd both medications slowly (over about a 3 month period, by taking decreasing doses each 3-4 weeks) and began supplementing with meditation, yoga, affirmations and self=hypnosis. It took a while to feel any better, but I’ve been off medication for 6 years now and my anxiety is 98% gone. I started getting better when I FINALLY stopped being so “afraid of being afraid” – when I stopped thinking of them as “panic attacks” and began to think of them as “temporary periods of increased adrenaline” – it takes a while of active conditioning, but when you change your perspective, guess what? you really change your perspective : ) BEST of luck to everyone dealing with anxiety – remember, every time you tell yourself it’s going to be ok, it gets to be just a little bit more ok!
haha – make that say “weaned myself off” both medications
I was started on 150mg of wellbutrin once a day last week.At first I just felt like I couldn’t sit still.
I cleaned and reorganized my whole house in an hour.
After the fourth day though,I had the WORST anxiety attack I have ever had! First some of my fingers went numb.Then my hand,and eventually my entire arm.I was shaking like a leaf and having trouble breathing.My head kept feeling light and with a pins and needles feeling like I was going to faint.
I was so close to going to the hospital…I thought I was having a heart attack.It lasted over an hour and it took two xanax before I finally calmed down.I haven’t taken the Wellbutrin again since that happened because I’m too scared to.
My doctor did tell me Wellbutrin wasn’t really helpful for anxiety,but I wasn’t even having that bad of anxiety before I started taking it! Mostly depression.
I definitely feel like Wellbutrin caused my anxiety.
I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder about 6 years ago. I am 53 now. I had been misdiagnosed for my whole adult life with severe depression and treated for that. I finally had a family physician say she thought I had a mood disorder (DUH!) and prescribed Lexapro, alone. After another 5 or 6 years I was finally diagnosed correctlly and Lamictal was added to my Lexapro. THANK GOD!! That was the perfect combination of meds for me. I was so stable, it was scary. It was like I was “normal”, whatever that is. I had lost my medical insurance in January 2010 and was waiting for the pharmaceutical company to complete my Patient Assistant Program and then it was decided that Lexapro was to go generic. This also meant that my doc wasn’t going to be able to provide me with the samples that had been keeping me going. The name brand Lexapro was so expensive that I asked what they could do to help me and so I was changed to Celexa (generic). I began to sleep a lot more than usual and just was kind of down, not really in a depression and mentioned that to my doc and he decided to try me on Wellbutrin. I HATE IT! I have had anxiety attacks, I have cried my eyes out and all this was over the Christmas holidays. I have never had anxiety attacks before, and I don’t want to have any more. I’m waiting for a call from my doc to get me off this stuff. Good luck to you all!
I was recently prescribed Wellbutrin XL (150mg) mostly for smoking cessation, but also because I do suffer from mild depression, especially during the winter months. I can honestly say that taking this drug was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had. By the end of the first day I was edgy. irritable and feeling anxious. On the evening of the fourth day I ended up in the ER because I felt like I was having a heart attack. My heart was racing, my blood pressure had gone through the roof and I was having trouble breathing steadily. This was after three miserable days with terrible chest pains, and feeling of paranoia, etc. I was convinced I was dying with cancer or my heart was giving out, something terrible. After a check up, Dr at the ER said my heart was fine, I was having a sever panic attack. Gave me some Ativan, which had me calm and feeling much better within 20 – 30 minutes. I took a presciption of Ativan home, to take only when I felt the anxiety/panic coming on, but I’ve only have to take two in the past couple of months, and the last was at least a month ago.
I stopped taking the Wellbutrin after that episode, and felt pretty much back to normal within 2 or 3 days. I know it affects everyone differently, but I can’t help but suggest that if you suffer from even the mildest form of anxiety, or are prone to panic attacks, avoid this drug like the plague.
Well..Im on effexor 75 mg right now but ive gained over 20 pounds. Ive never been this fat and the meds relax me to the point of sedation & i dont clean up, play my piano or do anything as much anymore. So my doc prescribed wellbutrin to help with the weight loss BUT i do have severe anxiety sometimes, and the comments ive seen concern me. I guess i do have to try it & see if my body likes it. If not i have to wean myself off effexor (which is HELL) or just learn to like being fat.
but, id rather be fat & happy than thin & suicidal.