Ola, just picked up a prescription for more Wellbutrin (AKA... THE DEVIL!) from the pharmacy, and decided to check my blood pressure. The machine said I was like 140/78, which it said was high. When I had my physical and such done only a month ago I was perfect ranges. Is it recommended to get off the Wellbutrin ASAP? Or do you think it would be ok to stay on it for 3-4 days? (my family doc's office is shut down till the 13th). I'm bumping my dosage from 150mg to 300mg tomarrow, so figured I should ask :)

THANKS! owe btw, 21 year old male :) perfect health... physically!

140/78 isn't any cause for concern in the short term, especially if you're young and otherwise healthy, but it's not a healthy level to have it at in the long term. Don't quit the meds just yet; it won't hurt you to stay on them for another few days, or even weeks or months, and you should see your doc before coming off them.

Don't jump to Conclusions about stopping your medication.

Talk to your Doctor?

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BP & Stimulants: not always what you think...

I went thru all this b/c I take a stimulant, and had high readings when those pinching drugstore machines and also when Doctors would check me. (They call it "White Coat Hypertension'.)


The ADHD Doc often got high (or higher) readings with his wrist cuff, in a low-set easy Lazy Boy chair.
Confusingly, my GP always got low readings with her arm cuff on me, and i was up on a high exam table.


Arm levels (and wrist BP cuffs), I later learned, can affect readings!
Your arm should be at HEART LEVEL when your BP is being measured.
If it is too low below your Heart (right atrium), you will read HIGH. If it is above your Heart, you will read too LOW.



http://www.guideline.gov/summary/summary.aspx?ss=15&doc_id=6527&nbr=4093


I learned a lot after this "high BP scare".


BP readings have to be taken over an extended period. (Several readings over several weeks, IIRC.)
Hypertension cannot be diagnosed during "one appointment" or "reading". HTN is an ongoing disorder.


If you have gained weight recently or have a sleep disorder or have just been walking, eating, smoking, using caffeine or having a conversation, , whether the arm is dependent (hangs VS. is held by Doctor) and even leg-crossing while sitting (as well as a bunch of other stuff): these can all affect your momentary BP.


There are also time of day (circadian) fluctuations.


The next step would be to give you a '24 hour BP cuff', to measure you more accurately, with readings every 30 minutes during the day, and every 60 mins during sleep. People who have true HTN will have high readings even during sleep, IIRC.

Again, talk to your Doctor.

Ola, just picked up a prescription for more Wellbutrin (AKA... THE DEVIL!) from the pharmacy, and decided to check my blood pressure. The machine said I was like 140/78, which it said was high.From the heart and stroke foundation:

http://ww2.heartandstroke.ca/Page.asp?PageID=1711&AA_RecordID=2087&RecordID=2087&Stream=bp2



"One size fits all" machines may not work well for children or people with arms that are either smaller or larger than normal.
To get an accurate reading, you have to:

Sit quietly for at least 5 minutes before taking your blood pressure.
Avoid eating, smoking, doing heavy physical exercise or drinking tea or coffee for at least half an hour before taking your blood pressure.

Good link APL.

I forgot to include a blurb about that: too skinny or too wide a cuff can affect readings.

We had this young man in my Nursing class who had HUGE MUSCULAR ARMS: when he used a skinny little BP cuff, his reading was WAY WAY off.

I can't recall if it was way too high or way too low, but it was so extremely distorted that we knew it was wrong.

I'll have to go research "BP cuff width" now! :D

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11940131&dopt=AbstractPlus

This article is about cuff width.

My SO says it has to do with the brachial artery's rate of compression, and the Korotkoff sounds.

My reading was unusually high in one of those drug store machines once, so out of curiosity (and terror), I did it a second time. With not more than 2 minutes between readings, the second one was a full 20 points lower. I don't think they are always the most reliable machines.