Zyban side effects and interaction with alcohol

[freak41]

I started taking Zyban about two months ago for smoking cessation.  At first I had very little side effects - in fact, I felt fantastic and ceased smoking within the first week.  Three weeks into the treatment, I became emotionally very unstable, crying for no reason, feelings of worthlessness - almost an induced depression with insomnia, very vivid dreams, severe join pains etc.  I coped well with those until I went out one night, had a few drinks and a total blackout followed.  I cannot remember anything after my third drink and according to my boyfriend, I got verbally aggressive, very difficult, erratic and eventually cried myself to sleep.    The incident scared the living daylights out of me and I stopped taking the Zyban immediately as this has never happened to me before.

After stopping the meds, I am still not smoking, but suffer from fatigue which is ok, BUT 3 - 4 weeks after stopping the meds, I went out again and suffered another blackout like the one above.  I did not drink any more than I usually do, and I am no stranger to alcohol and can tolerate it very well at the worse of times.  This time was even scarier than the first blackout.  

Is there any research done on the specific interactions between Zyban and Alcohol, even after cessation of the medication?  Help please?

[PeteyRosens]

I took wellbutrin for a few weeks once and had a dopamine overdose! it actually made me increase my cigarette intake.  Chantix so far has proven effective and although i get terrible dreams who gives a ****.  I dont want lung cancer.  

[Tuta0222]

I am taking Chantix - for the past 3 weeks, and I am having side effects. Depression, crying for no reason, anxious, vivid dreams and just feeling sorry for myself.
I too had  a blackout with drinking. I had 2 glasses of wine last weekend and I remember nothing, but I woke up with swollen eyes and was told by my husband that I cried, yelled, was a little unstable and did not make a lot of sense. That is really scary. I called the help line to find out a little more about it and was told not to drink alcohol while on the medication and avoid any alcohol 4 to 6 weeks after I stop taking it. But not a lot of explanation why this happened. Congrats with your quitting!

[anonymous9264]

Zyban is the same as Wellbutrin which is a commonly prescribed antidepressant and is an NDRI meaning norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitor.

So basically the concept of the medication is that when you quit smoking you quit getting your regular dopamine fix (the brain rewards you for smoking a cigarette by releasing dopamine which makes you feel good.) The zyban, over the course of a few weeks, stops your body from breaking down the natural dopamine in your brain as quickly. So ideally it keeps you from returning to smoking by keeping your dopamine system from crashing.

Also the Zyban has the norepinephrine action which you feel immediately when you take it. This makes you feel energized and "up." as norepinephrine is basically a stimulant.

When you start messing with brain chemistry like this the wrong meds can be really harmful and unpleasant to experience. I took wellbutrin for a month or so a while back and had some adverse side effects as well. It made me anxious and wasn't really working so well so I stopped taking it. What you should know is that the medication is slow to build up and slow to get out of your brain. This is because it doesn't just pump dopamine into your brain like smoking a cigarette or eating a powdered doughnut does, it stops your body from breaking down dopamine so that your levels slowly build up and if you stop the meds you'll slowly return to normal. 3 or 4 weeks after stopping the meds you should probably be back to normal but that depends on dosage and how long you took it.

As far as interactions with alcohol, all I know is that it made me more sensitive to alcohol and made me a "wilder" drunk. Alcohol decreases the efficacy of the meds and can increase side effects.

If you recently quit smoking and started taking a psychotropic medication and the stopped taking it your brain chemistry could be all over the place. I wouldn't expect the blackouts to keep happening, and I would expect weird symptoms for the next couple of months. In a few months you should stabilize though. I would really recommend seeing a real doctor as I am just some guy who sees a real doctor.

Wellbutrin/Zyban is kind of a weird antidepressant so there's not as much research with alcohol interactions and such. Maybe don't drink for a week or so more and then start slow as the zyban might not have completely stopped affecting you.

I had a pretty similar situation where I stopped smoking, then started taking Wellbutrin, then stopped because of side effects (seizure like jolts and anxiety) then had weird symptoms, fatigue, and depression for a couple months then got back to my "old self."
quitting doesn't get easy just easier. Good luck. sorry for the extremely long post, hope it was helpful.