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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Racer on November 4, 2004, at 16:51:13
I've been taking 10mg propranalol BID for anxiety, which has worked a treat for me. The out of control anxiety some of you may remember is gone, and what's left has been very manageable. I'm also on Cymbalta, 60mgs.
So, last appointment, Dr CattleProd prescribed Wellbutrin to augment the Cymbalta. So far, so good, after seven days at 150mg of the Wellbutrin XL. Tomorrow I go up to 300mgs. Everything, as I said, has been fine so far -- EXCEPT that the effects of the propranalol seem to be gone. Now Dr CP did warn me that the Wellbutrin might block the propranalol, and said that if it did, I should just back off the propranalol. Seemed like it would be fine, since I was thinking I could start taking the propranalol PRN anyway.
Turns out, I was wrong about that! LoL! Does anyone know anything about this? Can you suggest anything helpful? Would separating the times that I take them help? Or is there a dose dependency that might affect it?
Thanks!
Posted by Iansf on November 4, 2004, at 19:01:56
In reply to Wellbutrin and propranalol ???, posted by Racer on November 4, 2004, at 16:51:13
> I've been taking 10mg propranalol BID for anxiety, which has worked a treat for me. The out of control anxiety some of you may remember is gone, and what's left has been very manageable. I'm also on Cymbalta, 60mgs.
>
> So, last appointment, Dr CattleProd prescribed Wellbutrin to augment the Cymbalta. So far, so good, after seven days at 150mg of the Wellbutrin XL. Tomorrow I go up to 300mgs. Everything, as I said, has been fine so far -- EXCEPT that the effects of the propranalol seem to be gone. Now Dr CP did warn me that the Wellbutrin might block the propranalol, and said that if it did, I should just back off the propranalol. Seemed like it would be fine, since I was thinking I could start taking the propranalol PRN anyway.
>I'm on Wellbutrin and tried propranalol without benefit. It never occurred to me, or my doctor, that the former might cancel out the latter. That's very interesting.
Certainly it seems like the simplest thing to try would be check your blood pressure on the current dose of propranalol to make sure it's not too low, and if it's not, up the propranalol. If that doesn't work, you might want to ask your doctor for Klonopin rather than propranalol, or ask him if you could augment the Cymbalta with something other than Wellbutrin. Good luck.
Posted by crazychickuk on November 4, 2004, at 19:06:33
In reply to Re: Wellbutrin and propranalol ??? » Racer, posted by Iansf on November 4, 2004, at 19:01:56
wellburtin increaes anxiety... try something esle and up the pro to atleast 40 mg...
good luck
Posted by Racer on November 5, 2004, at 12:01:55
In reply to Wellbutrin and propranalol ???, posted by Racer on November 4, 2004, at 16:51:13
Thank you both for your responses.
A couple of points I think I should clarify:
1. I don't want to change the Wellbutrin. For one thing, it already seems to be helping with the depression, which the Cymbalta didn't. For another, I asked to try it, since I thought -- after an inadequate trial last year -- that it had been helpful. Also, I've tried dozens of anti-depressants, with varying results, and Wellbutrin is the only one that seems to have helped, is tolerable, and isn't on my list of Side Effects I cannot Tolerate Even If It Helps meds.
2. The propranalol helped a lot with the anxiety related portion of my symptoms. Benzos have not helped, and -- when I've taken benzos and been subjected to additional stress -- sometimes make it all worse. So, no benzos. If the propranalol won't work with the Wellbutrin, I'll stop it entirely (after discussing it with Dr CattleProd, of course) and just put up with any residual anxiety related symptoms. I don't want to up the dosage, for two reasons: one, the 20 mgs per day was working just fine, so if the addition of the Wellbutrin causes it to stop working, raising the dosage probably won't make much difference; and two, my blood pressure runs in the very low normal range, so raising the dosage is likely to cause problems that the very low dose doesn't. That's why the dose is so low, as well as the fact that propranalol for anxiety is usually treated with a very low dose anyway.
So, can anyone shed some light on the original question, which I will restate as clearly as possible:
Dr CattleProd warned me that Wellbutrin can block the effects of propranalol. It seems to be doing just that. Is there anything I can do, regarding timing the doses, that might help unblock some of the effects of the propranalol?
Thank you.
Posted by crazychickuk on November 5, 2004, at 14:47:24
In reply to Clarification of my situation and question, posted by Racer on November 5, 2004, at 12:01:55
ok heres my advice, seen as welburtin does increase anxiety sorry i dont know the techy details... and it blocks proponol why not just ask about augmentin the wellburtin that works so well for your depression with remeron? remeron is gr8 for anxiety anyways in my experience .. ?
just take wellburtin and remeron ... ? remeron is used to combat side affects of ad's not just physical but mentall ie anxiety too.. this could be a gr8 combo ?
ask the doc about it..
This is the end of the thread.
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