Dr. Aly (psychiatrists) compares Wellbutrin and Buspar, two commonly used psychiatric medications ***Link to FREE Wellbutrin Vs Buspar Medication Guide ➡️
Both welbutrin and busbar are commonly prescribed psychiatric medications with over 30 million prescriptions being written for the two of them each year but you’re wondering which is the better medication well in today’s video we’re going to compare them head to head so that you can have a better idea of which medication would be best for you before we dive
Into the details we first need to take care of some of the basics remember each medication usually has a generic name and a brand name and physicians will often use these terms interchangeably so while butane is the brand name and bupropion is a generic and then buspar is a brand name and beusperone is a generic okay now let’s talk about how these medications
Work because this is an area where they’re very different from each other while butane is considered to be an atypical antidepressant specifically a norepinephrine dopamine reuptake inhibitor or an ndri for short its main action is to increase the amount of norepinephrine in dopamine in certain areas of your brain fusebar on the other hand is considered to be an
Anti-anxiety medication and instead of working on norepinephrine or dopamine the main neurotransmitter it affects is serotonin primarily the 5-ht-1a receptors and this helps calm down certain areas of the brain that are too excitable in those with anxiety now what diagnoses do these medications treat so while butane is fda approved in adults for the treatment of
Major depressive disorder seasonal affective disorder and smoking cessation particularly under the brand name xyban busbar on the other hand is fda approved in adults for generalized anxiety disorder and a fun fact about this medication is that it was initially developed as a potential antipsychotic medication however early clinical trials found that it had little
Antipsychotic potency and instead it was eventually shown to have anti-aggression effects in primates and anti-anxiety effects in humans now neither busbar nor wellbutrin rfd approved for the use in children but both are commonly used off label and there have been research studies looking at the use of both medications in kids and teens on a side note something
That’s interesting about weld butrin is that it’s often referred to as being a twofer medication or a double whammy medication meaning that it can be used to treat multiple conditions simultaneously for example given that it’s approved for both depression and tobacco cessation it would be a great option for someone who’s struggling with low mood that also wants to
Quit smoking it can also help improve concentration of focus and boost energy levels so if you’re someone who has adhd and is experiencing a depressive episode that’s characterized by fatigue this could be a good option for you as well some symptoms that it’s known to treat include low mood fatigue poor concentration decreased motivation and tobacco cravings now
Let’s talk about how these medications are commonly prescribed while bujon is a tablet that has three different formulations so an immediate release a sustained release and an extended release version the number of times you have to take this medication per day is based on which version of the medication you’re on so you have to take the immediate release three
Times per day the sustained release two times per day and the extended release only once per day now buspar comes in a tablet and this has to be taken twice per day it doesn’t have a once daily option and then both medications have to build up in your system over time to fully work and this can take up to one to two months in some people and remember the goal of
Both treatment options is complete remission of symptoms now there’s something that i want you to know about that makes both of these medications interesting options and that’s the fact that they can be used either as solo agents right we only take this one medication or they can be used as helper medications meaning that maybe in addition to your ssri medication
You’re also taking one of these ones and this technique right can help enhance the benefits that would be seen with just taking your primary medication a question that i’m commonly asked is whether or not you can take these two medications in combination together and the answer is technically yes i’ve had patients who’ve been on both of these and found them to be
Beneficial however there’s just not a lot of research trials out there showing efficacy of combining the two of them if you’re looking for a way to keep track of all this information so that you can talk further about these medications with your physician i made a free pdf for you that covers all the main talking points so make sure to download it the link is in
The description below so what are the most common side effects we see in people who are taking these medications according to the fda drug labels the five most common side effects seen with wellbutrin include headaches dry mouth nausea insomnia and constipation where the top five for abuse bar are dizziness drowsiness nausea headaches and nervousness now there are
Two side effects not listed here that i’m constantly being asked about and those are sexual side effects and weight fluctuations when it comes to sexual side effects both medications are thought to be lower risk when compared to some of the other primary medications you see being used for depression anxiety the use of fda labels states that things such as libido
Changes were infrequently seen and delayed ejaculation or impotence were rare infrequent meaning that they occurred in between one and one hundred to one and one thousand patients and rare being at a rate of less than one in one thousand patients for wellbutrin in particular there’s evidence showing that it has less sexual dysfunction than all the ssris snris
Tcas and maois not only do sexual side effects occur at or below the rate of placebo but also there’s some evidence suggesting that it actually has a positive effect on sexual functioning by increasing sexual desire so what we’ll see is that doctors will prescribe this medication in addition to an ssri to help reverse the sexual side effects that can be caused
By it okay now let’s talk about weight for wellbutrin the fda label shows that in mdd trials using the sustained release version 14 of those on 300 milligrams per day and 19 of those on 400 milligrams per day had weight loss greater than 5 pounds weight gain of 5 pounds or more occurred in just 3 and 2 respectively what they found was that there was an overall
Dose-related decrease in body weight for the vast majority of people who did experience weight fluctuations meaning that the higher the dose the more weight loss seen when comparing this to weight fluctuations with busbar both weight gain and weight loss are listed as being infrequent side effects on the fda drug label so both potentially occurring in 1 in 100
To 1 in 1 000 patients there are a couple more points i want to hit on when it comes to side effects for these two medications while butane is a medication has an fda black box warning on it it states that antidepressants increase the risk compared to placebo of suicidal thinking and behavior in children adolescents and young adults in short-term studies of major
Depressive disorder and other psychiatric disorders and this was not seen in those beyond the age of 24 years old it also discusses how serious neuropsychiatric events including but not limited to depression suicidal ideation suicide attempt and completed suicide have been reported in patients taking bupropion for smoking cessation and that some cases may have been
Complicated by the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal in patients who stop smoking buspar on the other hand does not carry such warnings the second thing i want you to know is that while butrin also lowers the seizure threshold and carries a risk of seizures which is associated in 0.4 percent or 4 out of 1 000 patients treated at doses of up to 450 milligrams daily
And this risk increases to four percent when the dose is increased to above 450 milligrams daily so we really don’t want to push the top end of the fda recommended dose with this medication and it needs to be used with extreme caution and those with a history of seizure disorders head injuries eating disorders and alcohol or drug abuse and then the last sort of
Bizarre thing about this medication is that it can cause false positives for amphetamines on urine drug tests so watch out if you’re taking this medication and have to drop a urine for whatever reason now before we get into which medication is best the other thing i want you to know about is the cost of these medications both of them are off-patent and available
Generically in the united states and what this means is that both medications are relatively affordable for most people at the time of recording this beautiful is actually on walmart’s four dollar drug list so you can get a 30 day script for four bucks and a 90 day script for 10. bupropion isn’t on the four dollar list but you can get a 30 day supply for 15 from
Walmart in a 90-day supply for 38. outside of walmart another resource to always check out is good rx and right now it’s showing that you can get a 90-day supply of bupropion xl for five dollars and 20 cents at hi-v okay now for the big question which medication is best let’s first dive into the research and see what it has to say there’s only one trial that i’m
Aware of that compares these medications head to head and this was published in the new england journal of medicine in 2006 and this evaluated findings from one of the biggest antidepressant trials ever conducted which is known as the star d over 2 800 patients with depression were given celexa and they measured rates of response and remission 50 percent of those
Patients did not have at least a 50 percent symptom reduction so those 1400 or so patients were given the option to change treatment courses there are multiple options to choose from and a total of 565 patients were either randomized to receive wellbutrin or buspar as an add-on what researchers found was that for the most part while butane and buspar were pretty
Similar overall in controlling depression symptoms however there was a slight advantage in some areas with the wellbutrin on some of the rating scales that were used to measure depressive symptoms while butane had a greater reduction in the number and severity of symptoms and it was associated with fewer side effects another study for you to be aware of was one
That was published back in 1983 and it looked at the effectiveness of wellbutrin and treating symptoms of anxiety specifically in treating panic disorder and the main thing i need you to know is that this study yielded negative results okay and i don’t think there’s been a more recent study conducted on wellbutrin in the treatment of anxiety since this time overall
While butane isn’t thought to be the best medication option to solely treat symptoms of anxiety now if you’re looking to do a deeper dive on either of these medications make sure to click that next video because i’ve got you covered
Transcribed from video
Wellbutrin Vs Buspar | Which Psychiatric Medication Is Best? By Straight Talk Psychiatry
