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Just discovered this forum – its a great forum, dr.mariano has filled in all the missing pieces for me regarding various treatments/ailments and why certain treatments have paradoxical effects or don’t work as expected or what other things need to be in place first.
my situation – i started using bupropion sr about 5 weeks ago. started it for adhd/situational depression and to replace the extremely high dose of caffeine i was on for the past 8 yrs
(800mg a day/ 200mg every 4 hrs). I definitely had symptoms of adrenal fatigue or whatever you wanna call it while on caffeine and while tapering off(surprise). Low cortisol symptoms.Initially the bupropion gave me some energy – but as you can probably guess due to my tired caffeine depleted adrenal hormones it turned into fatigue and pro-norepinephrine shakiness and some anxiety. It also lowered my libido substantially (i am normally hypersexual).
5 weeks later and my energy is improving again (probably due to me being off high dose caffeine for over a month now- i dropped to about 300mg a day). however my libido is still low until later in the night (bup wearing off?)
My question – i need more of the dopamine effects-bup is not very pro-dopamine as dr.mariano has cleared up for me (i actually have less motivation on the bup- normally i’m single minded almost obsessive with certain goals).
is there anything i can do to lessen the noradrenalin effects and increase dopamine signalling? something to augment ? bupropion has been helping my depression – but definitely not my adhd tendencies. I’m on 100mg sr twice a day.
i may have the option to use dexedrine – but i’m wary of long term effects/addiction/tolerance. bottom line i need my libido back and less noradrenaline type effects..anxiety/shakiness/fatigue.
suggestions? this is my first prescription anti-dep. but i have dabbled with selegiline in the past. i also have isocort on the way after reading through this forum-gonna hold off on it for a bit tho. maybe bupropion not rite for me?
tz
Sounds lke you want something that is exclusively focused on the dopamine and not the NE.
I think you’ll be looking more towards Parkinson type drugs – bromocriptine, cabergoline. You mention you have tried selegeline in the past though… I think thats the same family of drugs.
Have you tried supplementation with prescursors? Tyrosine or L-Dopa. The problem with reuptake inhibitors is that take a while to work and just elevate the levels of what you have too long sometimes. With increasing the raw product there is at least the opportunity for it to degrade naturally and levels to drop – you can then increase the supplementation whereas with blocking reuptake of them you have less control.
Generally speaking antid-depressants are worth avoiding if you can find relief another way but that said they are extremely effective and useful IF there are no other methods and the patient is aware of the long term risk/benefit profile of the drug they are prescribed.
yeah you’ve hit the nail on the head – that’s the way i feel sometimes with the bupropion – like it keeps drawing out the NE effects and wearing me down and keeping my anxiety levels higher than normal on a constant basis.
Selegiline was great in some ways – but I also can’t say I experienced its effects properly – i was still using 800mg of caffeine a day (tablets) with it – so i have no doubt it worsened some of deprenyl’s side effects.
Its a little frustrating cuz in some ways bupropion is helping – but overall its affecting important things in my life – libido and motivation.
i’m thinking of using 300mg of Kira St.Johns Wort in the evenings maybe every other day to calm things down a little – i’ve found this effective in the past when just on the caffeine. i’ve checked drug interaction checkers online and there appear to be no contraindictions with bupropion.
i’m still a little weary and wouldn’t mind a few more educated opinions. any thoughts on that? combining my regular bupropion dose (200mg /day) with 300mg SJW every other night or so?
Hopefully he will update and give us his views.
Im doing much better on nothing overall than when i was on the SNRI. BUT i dont feel sharp like i used to during the day. Working with tyrosine supplmentation (precursoer for dopamine and then NE) and then taking 5htp in the evenings (precursor to serotonin).
If you re feeling too stimmed at night then GABA is extremely effective – this was the only thing able to turn me off when the NE was too high but it wore out halfway through the night when i was on the SNRI due to the NE levels staying chronically elevtated. Now rather than blocking excess NE with the GABA i am working my way up from the other end of the spectrum – too low NE during the day but i think better this way for now so i can get some sleep and avoid the antidepressant type meds throwing me more off balance.
Getting rid of the sweats and feeling hot all the time is a plus too but it hasnt actually effected my body temp which is still stupidly low (waking temp was 35.6 today). I think i need to keep tweaking my thyroid (have been on HC and t4 for a long time due to addisons) and i know hypothyroidism can also cause big problems with depression/mood/lethargy….
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