I was hanging out with AnitaVacation this weekend when I mentioned that for the last 6 months or so I’ve really noticed a marked decline in my short term memory and my ability to hold onto a train of thought. In the course of our conversation I made a connection… Wellbutrin. I started taking it last spring. The timing works out.
I did some searches online and found some other people talking about short term memory loss and wondering if it was their Wellbutrin… but I don’t know those people or how informed or uninformed they may be… whereas I trust y’all. Well, mostly.
Anyway, I have left a message with my psychiatrist and I will talk to her about it tomorrow when she calls me back… but I want to know if anyone here has experienced anything similar, or knows of anyone who has? And if so, what they did about it?
If you did experience this… did it eventually go away? Get worse? Change medication? Change dosage? I know my doctor… she will probably offer me several options including staying on Wellbutrin or switching to something else… She always leaves it up to me to decide. So in anticipation, I’d like some sort of information to try to form my decision from.
So what do you know? I’m 31 by the way, so it’s probably not general purpose aging yet. I also take Lamictal and Seroquel–do they have any effect on memory?
*Disclaimer: I am not looking for a replacement for “real” medical advice–I’m getting real medical advice from my doctor. I understand that you guys aren’t my doctor. I just want to gather some data and experiences from other people so that I have more of a clue when I talk to her. *
I noticed much the same symptom…at least as far as keeping hold of a train of thought… I switched to Paxil and then to Prozac without much change.
With reduced dosages of Prozac it seemed to get better, but other side effects made me stop entirely. I think I do better now, but it may only be becuase I forget what I forget.
I believe the symptoms you are describing are pretty normal for people with depression and/or anxiety.
During my depression i had a very hard time concentrating and remembering stuff. Sometimes bad enough that i had to drop classes at uni.
I remember an episode where i had to draw my country’s flag (not a uni class ;))and couldn’t remember what it looked like. Now i’m not much of a patriot but that freaked me out.
Even though the worst of my depression went away when i began treatment(Zoloft, about 12 months ago) the mental “lag” stayed. About a month ago i finally noticed some improvement and now it seems to get better each day.
Point is: To the best of my knowledge what you are experiencing is normal and will get better with time.
hobophobic: I’ve been diagnosed as bipolar for a dozen years and have been on medication for the last 9 or 10. I just switched to Wellbutrin from Celexa last spring (and previously I was on Paxil)… so this isn’t a symptom of depression and/or anxiety because I never had it before. I’m not sure what you mean by it being normal and will get better with time… what is that based on? (I mean is that assuming that it is the meds or not? I’m just not following your post well. :/)
I’m taking 300mg/day of SR at the moment, miatachris.
I was on a lower dose earlier on, but it wasn’t effective at that dose.
What i meant was that problems with concentration/memory are common in people with depression/anxiety. I therefor wrongly assumed that your problems were not connected with the meds but with the disease itself.
Wellbutrin makes me sharper, what with its stimulant properties. If I’m ever a bit spacy, it’s probably because of the meds I take for my rather nasty anxiety disorder.
My wife was on it (for smoking cessation) and it made her a little nutsy. I wonder if your “short-term memorey loss” is really just caused by the increased level of distraction, inability to concentrate, etc. My wife certainly suffered from those symptoms.
I took the same-thing-but-named-something-else-stop-smoking-drug for a while, and it wouldn’t suprise me that you have memory loss. How about constipation, insomnia, dry mouth, nervousness…I could go on. I’m sure some of it was nicotine withdrawl, but I had quite plenty of other times without the stranger effects. But overall, the side effects were worth it. I quit. I only took it for two weeks though, it just drove me too batty.
What was the ineffective lower dose you were on? You could always - after consulting with your shrink and getting a new script - step down to 250 mg/day (150 mg morning, 100 mg afternoon), or to 200 mg/day (100 mg twice a day). Just how late in the day are you taking the second dose?
What are you taking for the insomnia? A benzo, or Ambien? Or a tricyclic or trazodone?
Maybe you’d be better off on Wellbutrin XL, which is taken once daily. It’s a new formulation, though, so it might not yet be covered by your insurance.
I take 150 mg Wellbutrin SR in the morning as an adjunct to Celexa and the anxiety meds. In the beginning, I used to “crash” about 11 hours after taking it, but as the levels became more constant in my system, that ended. I’m hoping to switch to the XL formulation once it’s approved in Canada and covered by my insurance.
I took Wellbutrin (Zyban) to stop smoking about 5 years ago and it really messed up my memory at the time. But after about 2 months of taking it I stopped and my memory returned right away. However, I started taking Zoloft in 2000, first 50mg/day and almost immediately had trouble with short term memory loss. My shrink said it was the depression and not the medication causing it. Funny that, since I had no memory problems even in the midst of a depression that would’ve made Hemmingway proud.
Last year at this time my shrink upped my dose to 100mg/day…
The memory problem became significantly worse… It was hard to carry on simple conversations because my train of though would constantly derail and I would forget even the most mundane words. My life became dominated by post-it notes.
I stopped taking the Zoloft the beginning of July of this year and am not on any other meds . Now my memory is starting to return. It’s not yeat as sharp as it was before starting the meds but is has improved. BTW I’m 31 years old. Ruling out a brain tumor or very very early onset Alzheimers, I’m convinced it was the medication that screwed up my umm…um…what’s the word?..uhhhhhhhhhhh…memory!
Your psychiatrist has that handy clinical experience & no doubt will give it to you straight.
I checked the USP DI-Volume II, Advice for the Patient & PDR Family Guide to Rx Drugs.
The most common side effects listed for Wellbutrin are agitation and anxiety. Short-term memory loss was not listed.
Short-term memory loss can also be a symptom of depression or mania as well as a side effect from some medications.
Insomnia past a couple of days, for someone with bipolar disorder, is usually enough to warrant a visit to a p-doc anyway…
I have taken Lexapro for a year now & it works well for me,
however it’s expensive being the newer generation of Celexa. But less side effects.
After seven years, (I’m 28) I tried going off my medication…for about two weeks. What a nightmare.
“Hi, my name is JungleLove & I am bipolar.” I am no longer in hopeful denial.
Why did you go off Celexa, if you don’t mind my asking & we aren’t straying too far from GQ guidelines…
(BTW, I have always enjoyed your posts to SDMB; I had no idea we had this illness in common.)
I’m currently on Wellbutrin SR but she called in the non-SR version for me yesterday and it will be in today. I didn’t realize that the SR meant it was time released. I can’t take time released medications–because of my surgery. (I have a much shorter intestine and most of it has no digestive enzymes in it).
I’m taking Seroquel to combat the insomnia.
I’ll give the “regular” Wellbutrin a try for now and see if that fixes things… I haven’t really felt like I’ve reached an effective dose yet–but that’s probably because I’m not absorbing it all!
If it doesn’t, I’m just going to ask to switch to something else.
CURIOUS GEORGIE7 – yes I have that inability to carry on conversations thing happen sometimes. I’ll just lose my train of thought. This has never happened to me before. Ever.
JungleLove - I stopped the Celexa because I wanted my sex drive back. It isn’t back yet, btw. sigh Thanks, btw!
Just be careful with the non-SR version. That’s the original formulation that caused seizures in too high a percentage of patients, was withdrawn for a few years, and reformulated as SR to reduce the possibility of seizure. I hope your shrink informed you of that. No doubt the pharmacist will.
