What Causes Anxiety And OCD After Taking Vybrid And Wellbutrin Combination?

Posted on Mon, 16 Feb 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 16 Feb 2015 Answered on

Fri, 13 Mar 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : I am currently taking Zoloft 150 mg for about 4 weeks now switched from vybrid 40 mg. I also take wellbutrin xl 300 mg with the Zoloft. I was doing okay on the vybrid wellbutrin combo with depression but still had anxiety and obsessive compulsive thinking with them. doctor switched to Zoloft for anxiety and ocd benefits and wants to wean me off th wellbutrin xl because I believe I have built a tolerance to it and I already take Adderall 75 mg which does help me focus and calms me and helps with depression. Zoloft is helping with anxiety but not at all with depression. I feel lethargic, non motivated, loss of appetite. Pharmacist feels I need to give Zoloft more time. see doctor tomorrow. I am on a benzo for anxiety but once I get the right antidepressant I will wean off that slowly. Should I raise the dose of Zoloft, go back to vybrid or try something else. don't know what to do. don't feel like myself right now.

Answered by Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi (31 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Wait for some more days to see response

Detailed Answer:
Hello thanks for asking from HCM

I can understand your concern. You have anxiety and depression and you were taking Vybrid and Wellbutrin for that but due to persisting anxiety and obsessive symptoms Vybrid was stopped and Sertraline was started. Anxiety is better but depressive symptoms like lack of motivation and lethargy are persisting.

Coming to discussion-

If we consider efficacy of Sertraline (Zoloft) and Vybrid then a number of studies observed that Zoloft was more efficacious than Vybrid in controlling symptoms of anxiety and depression. Zoloft is a SSRI drug and the drug is a good anti anxiety and antidepressant drug. So even you are having persisting depressive symptoms still as per my opinion Zoloft is right drug for your symptoms. In usual cases the drug takes about 4-6 weeks to show its full effect. The doses of 150 mg are fine but if you can discuss with your doctor to increase doses to 200 mg per day then that would be fine and will help in better control of your symptoms.

The drug also helps in sleep so with time you can wean off from benzodiazepine easily. As per my opinion no point in going back to Vybrid.

Thanks, hope this helps you. Please don't hesitate to ask again for more doubts.

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