Promising start with Bupropion (Wellbutrin)

[Iwillbeatthis]

Yes it would yohimbe is like pure norepinephrine/epinephrine.

[hapl]

But does that help or potentially harm - and would it be a daily stack or a pre-pack?

I feel much better after O, during intense mental activity, etc. It's the aftermath - the next few days - that the negative effects become apparent. So I've wondered if things that just raise dopamine or norepinephrine would be helpful or harmful, or if there are other potential treatment protocols.

[Laotzu1980]

Sorry to hear that OpiesDad. At least your symptoms didn't seem to last very long. The Wellbutrin would be in full effect now, and I wonder if that actually makes a difference.

If the efficacy wears off, given that after only 3 days of taking it you were able to O without any symptoms, if you do decide to go off this medication with your doctor, you may again wish to try it shortly after as a prepack and see if it is effective in that way.

All the best there, and hope you are feeling better.

[Muon]

Hi Muon,
Regarding your post on Bupropion :

Opiesdad improves on: Bupropion and propranolol. Feels worse on SSRI's and LDN.
(...)

You may want to read this exchange on reddit (user TheLooza is Opiesdad), for other hypotheses :
https://www.reddit.com/r/POIS/comments/mkeh4n/wellbutrin_appears_to_have_cured_my_worst_symptoms/gtjjz8z/?context=3
and https://www.reddit.com/r/POIS/comments/mrp51k/noepiephrine_deficiency_and_noepiephrine_reuptake/guwbi6p/?context=3

[OpiesDad]

Wellbutrin 300 mg + Propranolol 60 mg + Hydroxyzine 25 mg  regimen still working guys.  I have been jerking off fairly regularly again (once a week). I do still get a painful fatigue that lasts a few hours, but it resolves fairly quickly and from there I am close to 100% save for some acid reflux (take pepcid 20 mg as well).  The norepinephrine theory may still be in play, especially because the post O crash could reflect the low level of norep, but it more quickly refills returning me to a more balanced state + the other medications handle the other physiological symptoms.

I mean, for the most part I feel normal again and I'm really excited about it!!!

[OpiesDad]

Wow. That's great news. You are extremely lucky, and let's hope it continues. Thank you for the reply, I was actually waiting to hear your results before seeing a doctor, but glad you waited to give it a proper test before reporting back. I am in a POIS episode now and it's hell. I wonder how severe your symptoms were pre-Wellbutrin. I cannot even function as a normal social being in this state. No way I could go to work in POIS, not even in a low-pressure position.

Thanks again, and wishing you continued success with it.

My symptoms for the first year were out of control. A 9 out of 10. I got medical leave approved from work (though only took a few days off sporadically). I could not function really at all for days at a time.  Intense head pressure and dizziness, a chemical sort of depression and anxiety, aches all over my body, red inflamed eye, very intense acid reflux, rashes in different spots, dry mouth like you wouldn't believe, weird sweating but chills/freezing appendages, testicular pain and heaviness, a brain fog that made me fearful that I had brain damage, difficulty speaking, lump in my throat, no working memory whatsoever, couldn't even follow conversations, couldn't understand words on paper....IT WAS BAD. 

Before POIS, I would have said I was an extremely healthy person, and POIS basically broke me.

When I cut out gluten and caffeine, started taking the propranolol and pepcid + antihistamine things did start to improve overall. The adderrall helped a little, but too much actually made me foggy.  In any event, in the second year, my POIS became way more tolerable.  More like a 6 out of 10, but still had most of the symptoms and I also started to get them at weird times despite abstaining from Orgasms for weeks at a time.  Bowel movements seemed to cause flare ups, as did certain thoughts or stresses.  Being in a heated room or hot spot with non-moving air definitely triggered symptoms as well.  It's why I became so convinced that POIS was a mast cell condition.

I also tried an incredible array of supplements, prepacks and SSRIs but none of those helped me at all.

And then the Wellbutrin in March was introduced and things got really good.  As I said, I still seem to get a sharp fatigue that last two or three hours and a desert dry mouth.  On my POIS scale we are talking 1 or 2 out of 10.

[OpiesDad]

Eh.  I've had a couple setbacks with wellbutrin.  Including a very very bad day on Friday when I only got 4 hrs of sleep and woke up very "fast" the next morning (jumped out of bed and ran upstairs for something).  Don;t know what to sy.  things have gotten better overall, but I definitely got sick, and O'd last night and today had the Zero energy affect where I could barely move. 

Feeling much better now, so maybe symptoms are resolving faster, but still.

[Nas]

I wonder if Milnacipran can be a safer alternative to Wellbutrin.

[Muon]

https://scholar.google.nl/scholar?hl=nl&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=bupropion+anti-inflammatory&btnG=

[Laotzu1980]

How's the Wellbutrin working at the moment? Do you still feel it has turned the ship around for you?

[Disaster]

POIS for me is 100% not a norepinephrine deficiency. I think sick people in general come up with ideas or are worse told by doctors things that are untrue because they never get tested for it. To test Norepinephrine it is a blood test, resting and standing for 10 min. It is sent to a special lab frozen. It?s called a Catecholamine test, google it. It tests Norepinephrine, Dopamine, Epinephrine and serotonin, ect?

My Norepinephrine is actually very high?

[hapl]

I think it's hard to say 100% anything. Serum catecholamine levels (or urine) test just that - levels in serum or urine. This is not necessarily correlated with brain levels. If they were, then SSRI and SNRI rx would be based on testing, rather than on psychiatrist experience. Unfortunately as far as I know, the only reliable way to test neurotransmitter levels in the brain is by sacrificing the subject. Hence all our reliable info is from animal experiments.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but that's my understanding and why I haven't really pursued expensive urine transmitter tests. That shows what you urinating out, but not what is necessarily affecting your brain function.

Plenty of people here have been tested for a million different things. We still don't understand POIS, so we don't really know what we're looking for.

[POISed2cure]

OpiesDad, how are you managing?

[hapl]

Curious how you're doing OpiesDad. Also interesting to me because intense acid reflux is a symptom for me (also from any activities that trigger CFS-type flares). But I don't hear people mention acid reflux that often.

[demografx]

…I don't hear people mention acid reflux that often.

Excessive caffeine gives me acid reflux. Painful at times.

[OpiesDad]

I would actually say that the acid reflux is a major symptom of mine that I control primarily with a 3x dose of Pepcid AC (30 mg), and sporadic use of prilosec.

To close the thread on this, the wellbutrin had an initially positi ve but ultimately temporary impact on well being. While it had promise at first, it did not do much to help with POIS symptoms.

Instead as I note in other threads I have had very significant success with higher dosages of propranolol (60-120 mg daily) and allegra along with occassional alleve, pepcid and sudafed after O or when feeling symptoms.  I have also made several significant lifestyle modifications including going gluten free, alcohol and caffeine free, earlier to bed that I view as critical to POIS management.

[Lihua]

I would actually say that the acid reflux is a major symptom of mine that I control primarily with a 3x dose of Pepcid AC (30 mg), and sporadic use of prilosec.

To close the thread on this, the wellbutrin had an initially positi ve but ultimately temporary impact on well being. While it had promise at first, it did not do much to help with POIS symptoms.

Instead as I note in other threads I have had very significant success with higher dosages of propranolol (60-120 mg daily) and allegra along with occassional alleve, pepcid and sudafed after O or when feeling symptoms.  I have also made several significant lifestyle modifications including going gluten free, alcohol and caffeine free, earlier to bed that I view as critical to POIS management.

do you mean that wellbutrin  does not work?