I started taking Wellbutrin three weeks ago. I had been taking Z...

The best combination of anti-depressants for me have been Celexa and Wellbutrin. I used to take 60mg Celexa and 400mg Wellbutrin for a couple years. Then suddenly my body chemestry changed and for the last two years I've been on 20mg Celexa and 75mg Wellbutrin.

During this last two year period, the Wellbutrin has always caused prolonged migraine-like headaches but the lower dose made them less frequent. I reduced the Wellbutrin to 50mg three weeks ago, but now the Celexa makes me sleepy and lethargic (as it always has) so I have to sleep 10 hours a day and can't get out of bed in the morning. Wellbutrin was helping counteract that.

So now I'm going to try Provigil. Standard dose is 200mg, I'm going to start at 25mg for a week to be on the safe side. Then my doctor wants me to go to 50mg to see if that helps me stay awake. Provigil is used mostly for narcolepsy.

For the headaches, which last for 3 days otherwise, I take Amerge. It works very well. Usually one tablet but sometimes two are necessary. The effect is good for a full 24 hours.

Hi - I am a medical student (not that this gives me any authority on the matter BUT I have been taking anti-depressants for over 10 years and have a lot of experience with changing/stoping medications so this is where I am drawing my knowledge/opinions from). You didn't mention how you switched medications. This is VERY IMPORTANT. You never want to just stop "cold turkey". The safe way is to reduced your dose SLOWLY. You were on Zoloft for a long time and it takes weeks and weeks (possibly months) for the drug to get fully out of your system. Just because you are flipping to a new medication and not stopping meds altogether doesn't change this. The medications work in different ways (if they didn't why would you change?) If you go off of any anti-depressant slowly - tapering the dose down gradually - you minimize side-effects and allow your body time to compensate. It is possible that many of the side-effects that you are attributing to Wellbutrin may actually be from stopping the Zoloft. In addition, starting a new medication can cause side-effects as well so your doctor, hopefully, is tapering you UP to a normal dosage slowly. Most people will be able to handle the negative side-effects from the significant body chemistry changes that suddenly stopping or starting large doses of the meds can cause, HOWEVER in a small percentage of people there can be dire consequences, such as having a seizure. So always gradually taper off and on medications. Best to avoid nasty headaches and dizziness! I, for one, experience strange "electric zaps" in my head after a few hours if I forget to take even one dose of my medication. Not great feeling and very scary.

Why are you switching from Zoloft to a completely different class of medications? I bet it is partly from the great Wellbutrin advertisements! (We all go to our doctors now asking for specific medications... kind of scary). It sounds like Zoloft was working quite well until you noticed needing to increase your dosage. You were likely building up a slight tolerance to it - this is common although not well studied. So the best bet was probably to try a different medication from the same class (SSRIs) such as Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac, or Paxil. As long as they were covered by your insurance and you didn't have an actual reason for switching to Wellbutrin (which mostly affects the levels of Dopamine). So if I were you and I was still having some problems with the Wellbutrin after a few more weeks I would see my doctor and talk about switching back to an SSRI. Or possibly staying on the Wellbutrin and adding back an SSRI. Combination therapy is very common and often is needed to reach a successful level of mental health with minimal side-effects. But who knows. Maybe the Wellbutrin is working really well for you. :o) Hopefully this is the case.