Alcohol + Wellbutrin (or other anti-depressants)

Don’t worry I’ve got a call in to my doctor to discuss this matter, but I was wondering if there’s a general answer that people here might know.

I recently started taking Wellbutrin (300mg/day) to help quit smoking. So far so good. I’ll be on it until December.

The bottle is marked “do not drink alcohol while taking this medication” which is fine because in general I don’t drink.

However, I’m going to Vegas in November and I am thinking I might want to imbibe while there. There’ll be a 3-day span where I have the opportunity to drink.

Does anyone know (from their experience) if I should:

A. Stop the meds for a period of time (if so, when, in relation to the 3 days)
B. Stay on the meds and drink but keep it to a minimum of 1 or 2 drinks (liquor)
C. Stay on the meds and continue to avoid drinks.

I can’t quite drink the non-alcoholic frou frou drinks that are full of sugar because I’m a diabetic. Usually Diet Coke is fine for me but you know sometimes a girl just wants to have fun!

Any thoughts?

The drug monograph says:

I was on Wellbutrin while still drinking heavily (before I stopped drinking entirely) and never had a problem, but that’s my own experience. YMMV and all that. There are sites that claim the seizure potential of Wellbutrin SR is overblown; a throwback to the nasty experience of the initial immediate-release version, which was withdrawn shortly after its introduction and later reformulated to a safer sustained-release version.

From a Salon article, (http://dir.salon.com/sex/feature/2000/09/26/wellbutrin/index.html):

Make of that what you will.

IANAD or pharmacist or pharmacologist, and all that.

IANAD, but I have taken a wide spectrum of the currently-available antidepressents in my time and my impression is that the recommendation not to drink alcohol (which appears on virtually every antidepressant medication) is a combination of two things:

  1. Many of them cause dizziness and can interfere with your ability to drive a car, operate machinery, perform surgery, etc., and alcohol is very good at amplifying those effects.

  2. The general wisdom is that if you’re depressed, drinking alcohol isn’t a very good idea.
    An example of a misleading warning is the one for the medication Buspar - the bottle strongly warns you against drinking grapefruit juice or eating grapefruit while taking the medication. The wording usually seems to imply some horrible side effect will be the consequence (like making your pancreas turn into a dachsund or causing Prince to change his name again), but the actual effect is simply that a chemical in grapefruit supresses your body’s intake of the drug.

Ask your doctor, though, before taking my rambling as anything other than color commentary.

I am not a doctor either but I do have a degree in psychopharmacology and I have been on Wellbutrin while drinking. I discussed it with my doctor and while drinking while on Wellbutrin is not a great idea, it is not the worst thing in the world either. The risk is that drinking may reduce the effectiveness of the drug and may cause some side-effects to be more severe in some people. These effects are usually seen in people that drink often and in large amounts. In my experience, all antidepressants and lots of other drugs have this same warning on the bottle. Wellbutrin wasn’t singled out on purpose.

I’ve been on 2-times-per-day 150mg Zyban for just shy of three weeks now as a stop smoking aid. Zyban, of course, is Wellbutrin, so we’re on the same dosage of the same medicine.

I went to see my doctor before this quit-smoking attempt – all other attempts were on my own. The only reason I went to my doctor was because the insurance company told me I had to if I wanted the patches to be covered with my prescription coverage. I’d already decided against the Zyban based on the seizure reports and the do-not-drink warnings.

So in the discussion with my doctor, I told him I was ready and prepared to quit smoking, but wasn’t ready to give up tequila, homebrew, and Blue in addition to it. He convinced me not to worry: Seizures seem to be a significant risk only for those with a history of seizures. Alcohol, he said, would only be a problem for heavy drinkers (you know, the type of people you whisper about saying, “he’s a drinker”). In some people, the intensity of the alcohol can be amplified – this was the case for me initially, but now I’m over it.

You said you’d consult a doctor, so do it. It should turn out to be a relief for you. It’d be tough being in Vegas without taking advantage of the free drinks. On the other hand, don’t be tempted to smoke!

So I’m going to go off topic since I abused my newsgroup connection and can’t get to alt.support.non-smoking for another four months (!!!): I’m on day 9 and feelin’ fine. Haven’t touched a cigarette in 9 days. And I truly do feel good about it. And the only thing I can possibly attribute it to is the Zyban. In previous quit attempts with the patch alone (and the gum, and the inhaler bought in Mexico without a prescription), I’d soon be jittery, then I’d do just about anything to secure a cigarette. I don’t feel that way at all now. Sure, once in a great while I still reach for my shirt pocket, but that’s just the habit – not real desire. Sometimes, though, I have the desire, but it’s sooooo easy to fight off this time. I wish to God I’d tried the Zyban before; and I never did because of all of the alcohol warnings.

If you don’t know, you’re supposed to start the Zyban from seven to 10 days before your quit date, and continue smoking while it builds up in your system. Even the last couple of days, I just didn’t find the cigarettes enjoyable. At all. I kind of forced myself to smoke just to alleviate the withdrawal anxiety. Now there’s none of that. I think the only thing I have to fight is the nostolgia of it.

Good work on your quest to quit smoking!

My Dr did say to keep smoking for a bit (I’m on day 6 of meds) but I’ve cut down from 20+ a day to about 5 now.

Yesterday was rough because it seems the meds (or something else?) made my sense of smell particularly acute to the smell of cigarette smoke. My dad chain smokes and I was having trouble being in the house because all of a sudden the house REEKS. I was glad I had a few hours of stuff to do outside the house (I work at home).

I do find I am much calmer not smoking than I was before when I tried to quit. Plus, the cost of the meds (will end up being a total of $200 out-of-pocket when I’m done) is enough incentive to not want to go through this again :slight_smile:

Thanks all for your advice. I will still talk to my doc. I am not prone to seizures, and I am also not one to get drunk while drinking. The first sign of wooziness I get all freaked out and quit. So I think I shall be fine.

Balthisar for more quitting smoking talk, go to this thread in MPSIMS.

Congratulations on trying to quit, and good luck!

In my experience, antidepressants can interfere with that “first sign of wooziness.” So I would decide before drinking exactly how many drinks I can have before I’d normally start feeling woozy, and not go over that amount whether you feel perfectly sober or not. It’s possible you’d feel perfectly fine, decide to have a couple more drinks, then suddenly find yourself drunk without the usual “wooziness” warning.

The Wellbutrin web page cautions against drinking “a lot” of alcohol while using Wellbutrin. What does that mean? I don’t know.

(Nott has deleted a joke about the drug Halliburton.)

Well for reference, I asked my Dr today about this and he said I can have 2 or 3 and I’ll be fine but “don’t get trashed”.

levdrakon thanks I will take note of that. It does take me a long time to get drunk but I don’t know if that’s a factor of time or a factor of # of drinks :slight_smile: Best be safe and just keep it to a minimum.

I’ve been on Wellbutrin for six months, at first for smoking cessation, then continuing because we figured out it was helping my depression/anxiety a great deal. I regularly have one-two glasses of wine a day, and haven’t noticed any side effects. However, before I gave up hard liquor, I was on 300mg/day and having something like four glasses of bourbon, especially after hard days at the office or at diplomatic receptions. That really worried me, and I had two alcoholic blackouts, which is two too many.

Bottom line from my health professional and my personal experience: one-two drinks, even up to four beers or so are probably all right, but if you’re on Wellbutrin or any other antidepressant, don’t be the first to the bar to do competitive tequila shots. Still have a scar on my left cheekbone from falling onto asphalt from doing that.

On Prozac/Prozac Generic here (I don’t take any thing else currently). Same difference in regards to alcohol.

When I asked, I got an answer similar to “One or two drinks wont harm you”. Which is good, as I personaly only cover that many drinks in a month, at best.

I turn 22 in a couple of days, and despite the commonly held view or people my age, I have had very little alcohol before I was 21, About 5 or so servings (when you add up a “sip” here or there of this or that- that my parents/family let me taste) Not withstanding communion at church.

Durring my mom’s birthday, was the first time I took two drinks back to back… (both Bottles of Mich Ultras) and I felt different after the second one, but I would attribute that to the beer it self, and not the interaction. I commented on the new found feelings, and decided to call my self off, citing my medication interaction.

Disclaimer: IANAD, Meeko’s advice cannot and should not replace any information that your personal doctor can give pertaining you your personal situation. When in doubt, do not consume Alcohol. Friends now when to say when. </CYA Statement> :rolleyes:

I’m on Lexapro (10 mg) and I haven’t noticed it to have any effect on my alcohol consumption.

Since this thread contains potentially damaging advice, I shall close it.

ZipperJJ, please consult your doctor for professional advice.

Thank you.

-xash
General Questions Moderator