Suggest Treatment For Severe Anxiety While On Wellbutrin

Posted on Fri, 24 Mar 2017

Question: 50 yr old female want to go back to school but numerous attempts on going to class I cannot concentrate to pass state boards. Always have had learning anxiety focusing problems growing up, but back then nothing was treated.
Due to stress (spouse quadriplegic for 17 years) I do tend to binge eat and not realizing. I need to get the help so I can move forward. I don't want to get medicine that is addicting. I am currently on 300mg Wellbutrin and haven't noticed any improvement.

Answered by Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi (52 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
SSRIs can help in these symptoms.

Detailed Answer:
Hello thanks for asking from healthcaremagic.com

I can understand your concern. The problems you're facing like poor concentration, poor focus, anxiety along with persistent stress are occurring most likely due to mild to moderate depression or anxiety. Evaluation is needed to confirm the exact cause of your symptoms.

Wellbutrin is Bupropion and is a good drug for anxiety and depression symptoms. You are on 300 mg and are seeing not much improvement and in such case I'd advise you to talk to your doctor and ask for re-evaluation.

SSRI drugs like Escitalopram or Citalopram or Paroxetine can be tried in place of Wellbutrin. The drugs are safe to use and are free of serious side effects. These are non addicting and have efficacy greater than Wellbutrin in controlling the symptoms of depression and anxiety. This will help to improve your focus and the performance in class should improve.

So please discuss with your doctor about these medicines and you will see improvement.

Thanks. Take care

You are welcome to ask follow up doubts.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar