Switching from Celexa to Wellbutrin SR

[PMKDBJZ]

My 17 yr old daughter is currently switching from Celexa 20 mg to Wellbutrin.  She was on the Celexa for 5 mos, and although initially very effective, she felt her symptoms of depression were returning and she gained 15 or 20 lbs since December/January that she couldn’t loose despite significant effort.  She was also experiencing urinary frequency and urgency.

Her doctor advised stopping the Celexa completely for two days, then starting on 150 mg Wellbutrin (morning) for two weeks, increasing to 150 mg 2x daily.  

She has been off of the Celexa for 6 days, and been on the Wellbutrin for 4 days.  For the last two days she is experiencing extreme edginess/anger, bouts of crying for little/no reason.  Easily frustrated.  Symptoms are getting rapidly worse from yesterday to today.  

Should she go back onto the Celexa and taper off?  Can Celexa and Wellbutrin be taken together safely with no increase risk of seizure?  Should she increase the Wellbutrin dosage after only 7 days, or should she wait the full 14 days on 150 mg/daily?  Does she really need to wait for a full 4 weeks before deciding if Wellbutrin will/won’t be effective?  If she was experiencing weight gain and side effects with Celexa, is it likely that she would experience similar issues with any other SSRI?  

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

She should definetly taper off of Celexa over a two week period, and her symptoms are very likely because of getting off too soon.

Most doctors start Wellbutrin and Prozac together, and it is well tolerated.

Wellbutrin is also activating, and she may be very sensitive to that, making her edgy and anxious.

I would suggest talking to your doctor again about having a low dose of both celexa and wellbutrin for several weeks, and then tapering off of the celexa, or replacing it with another ssri.  They do not act the same, and one of them will probably be effective without weight gain.

[greendot]

hello. my comment is in regards to celexa. i was given a 90day 20mg use for celexa, and after the third day, i had suffered all of the serious side effects. i as just released from the ER a few hours ago.  please be carefull on using celexal. very powerfull stuff.

[macs4]

I would like to respond to the patient taking Celexa. If I had known what the horrible withdrawal symptoms would be like I would never have taken this drug. It helped me immensly with my panic attacks but when my doctor switched me to wellbutrin the withdrawal symptoms hit. I had no idea what was happening to me and I suffered for several days. I finally thought of going to the web and looking up celexa withdrawal. What a relief it was to find out I wasn't alone and that these dizzy spells, racing heart, foggy head and electric buzzes were attributable to something. Luckily I still had some celexa on hand which I took right away. Within an hour I had "smoothed" out. I'm going to take the advice from people that were nice enough to post their experiences with celexa on the web, and try to come off this VERY slowly. My doctor had no idea the withdrawal could come from going off celexa and on to wellbutrin. He thought all symptoms for ssri's would be the same. Well, they're not.