posted
It's kind of hard to imagine that Wellbutrin, while a very useful and popular drug used for depression, smoking cessation and ADHD, has as potential (albiet quite rare) side effects inlcuding:
falling backwards in elderly patients seizures in babies who breast feed from you & hallucinations or psychosis
I haven't seen such a weird variety of side effects since Abilify! Thought that might bring a dark chuckle from readers =)
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Not really. Those are not half as bad as some of the ones I have seen. Granted, I just finished nursing school, so I have a lot of exposure to a lot of drug info on a fairly regular basis.
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So is there really a drug out there that can cause Spontaneous Insideoutitis? Or what about Colonic Inversion? Maybe Spleenal Impulsivity, or Dyspeptic Cerebrum?
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I've been on Wellbutrin before. The only side effects I had were headaches and weird dreams. But they were weeeeeeeird dreams. The kind where people start turning into hippopotomi and potted plants and things like that-and all of them were scary-realistic, too.
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I'm on Zoloft and Wellbutrin. The only side effects I've seen are not yelling at Havah and Tova.
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I took Advil one morning and voted for Obama, that really should be on the list of side effects.
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Out of curiosity - prior to taking drugs for ADHD did you try any natural / holistic solution first such as changing your diet?
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To be fair, his example was a change of diet, which is a reasonable step before taking drugs, isn't it? Or is that not at all efficacious?
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Yeah, that was my thought. I knew a few people in high school and university who had ADD, and often drank extremely caffeinated drinks and ate sugary foods. I don't know which was the cause and which the effect.
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...I've never heard of anyone taking Wellbutrin for ADHD. In order to cease smoking, loose weight, and treat depression and bipolar disorder, sure. ADHD? That makes no sense to me.
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My wife takes a drug (a steroid, I think) which lists as a possible side effect "fatal skin peeling."
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quote:Originally posted by MattP: My wife takes a drug (a steroid, I think) which lists as a possible side effect "fatal skin peeling."
My half-brother's wife had that reaction to a sulfa drug. She has to have skin grafts the rest of her life. They've only been married a couple of years, too.
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quote:Originally posted by Tinros: ...I've never heard of anyone taking Wellbutrin for ADHD. In order to cease smoking, loose weight, and treat depression and bipolar disorder, sure. ADHD? That makes no sense to me.
I've heard of a number of antidepressants being prescribed for ADHD. The mechanisms of ADHD are not well understood, nor are they necessarily similar between individuals so it makes sense that for some people psychoactive drugs other than stimulants may help.
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quote:Originally posted by MattP: My wife takes a drug (a steroid, I think) which lists as a possible side effect "fatal skin peeling."
My half-brother's wife had that reaction to a sulfa drug. She has to have skin grafts the rest of her life. They've only been married a couple of years, too.
Ah, that's right. Sulfasalazine is what I was thinking of. (not a steroid)
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A doctor once prescribed bactrim to me after I'd already told him I was allergic to Sulfa (I didn't know what bactrim was), and shortly after taking it, I was lying on a couch sweating in that comical way that basketball players sweat during post-game interviews. Weird- it lasted for an hour and then went away. I never knew if that was the cause of it or not.
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quote:Originally posted by dabbler: Have you done an essay on the side effects of placebo?
I did a paper on that when I was in college 17 years ago. It was fascinating.
The best thing I learned about that is that the placebo effect is real, and produces real effects. It isn't "just in your mind", it produces real, measurable physical effects that are (at least sometimes) quantifiable.
We also did double blind medical research at USAMRIID, and I was one of the people who knew what that was before they explained it. Soldiers would say " I know I got the real drug because I am having (insert side effect here).", and I would just shake my head.
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When I was a kid, I woke up one morning with an ear infection. I mean, I knew it was an ear infection. My Dad is an ENT. I grew up with ear infections, strep throat and nosebleeds all the time. But I was at summer camp. So I went to the camp doctor. He opened my chart, which had a big red stripe on it saying "Penicillin Allergy", and asked me if I had any allergies. I was 16, and I'd grown up believing that doctors know what they're doing (since my father is an incredible doctor). So I just looked at him and said, "Yes, I'm allergic to penicillin."
(Now, I'm not really allergic to penicillin. But once, I got put on penicillin at the same time as two other things, including a medically indicated shampoo, and I got a rash, so they decided better safe than sorry, and declared me allergic to penicillin. But I didn't know this at the time. Neither did the doctor.)
So he told me he was going to put me on ampacillin. I hesitated, and told him, "My Dad usually puts me on erythromycin." The doctor said, "Well, ampicillin is better for ear infections."
Leaving aside the attempted murder, that's apparently only the case for small children. This doctor was a pediatrician in the real world.
So I took it and didn't die or get any reactions, which is how we found out I wasn't actually allergic to penicillin. Sort of like throwing a witch into the water to see if she floats.
During my brief (11 day) stint in the Israeli army, I told a Russian doctor I was allergic to ibuprofen. He prescribed me Artofen. I told him I wouldn't take it, because I'm allergic to ibupofen, and he insisted that it was something different. And wrote me up for being contrary.
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Tinros: wellbutrin is converted by the body into ampheatmine like substance eventually. it is not a primary treatment for ADHD, but is certainly a fairly commonly used option.
As for eating sugar/consumption of caffeine: all the studies I have looked at showed no correlation between ADHD symptoms and such consumption. Actually, one showed that kids who eat a lot of sugar get tired quicker than those who don't.
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