Hi, everyone. I'm new to the board and am in search of some answers about the comparison between Wellbutrin XL and SR.

My boyfriend has been on Ritalin + 300mg Wellbutrin XL for about a month now due to moderate adult ADD, and this combination's done wonders for him. He's taking the XL at about 11pm, and this gets him awake and ready to go to work quickly in the morning. Work puts significant demands for concentration on him - and this is just fine until about 5pm, when he's found that the XL wears off and his ability to focus is pretty much gone.

After sharing this with his doctor, the doc put him on Wellbutrin SR, 2x/day, 200mg/time. This just happened today, so he hasn't started the dosage yet. We are wondering how he should time his doses to facilitate maximum concentration at work for the maximum amount of hours. If he needs to work till 7 or 8pm - this has previously been impossible on XL because it has worn off, leaving him unable to focus past 5pm. He's hoping to time doses of SR so that working late, and concentrating while doing so, will be possible. We know it needs to be 6-10 hrs apart - but should he still take the SR at night so it can kick in first thing in the morning? Should he take it in the morning because it will kick in sooner than XL does? How long should he expect to feel the effects of a dose of SR?

The doctor had little to no input on this. So I'm hoping someone here can answer my questions:

1. Does Wellbutrin SR take the same amount of time to kick in, in the course of the day, that Wellbutrin XL does?

2. For how long, in the course of the day, does one usually feel the effects of Wellbutrin SR?

Thanks!!!

SR releases faster is all, XL releases slower... they both may contain the same dose.

Thanks for the input! What I'm actually looking for is as exact of a measurement I can get on that speed - *how much* faster does SR release? Like, would a dose of SR taken at 3 am make one peak at 8am or at noon? and when would that dose's effects stop being felt? would a dose of SR taken at noon make one only start feeling that dose's effects a few hours later (making a person who works "lose a few hours" in the afternoon before the SR would kick in)?

I know this would differ for each person, but I figure there's probably some sort of general trend in the exact timings somewhere... :)

SR is supposed to be a twice daily med. XL is once daily. Thus you could probably guess that SR lasts about 6-8 hours steady and XL would be 12-24.

SR is supposed to be a twice daily med. XL is once daily. Thus you could probably guess that SR lasts about 6-8 hours steady and XL would be 12-24.
Well I have been on SR for all of two days but my experience thus far has been that I get what feel like an initial adrenaline rush (on 150 mg 1x day right now I am supposed to increase to 300 mg 1x day after 7 days.) about two hours after I take the pill, I am not 100 sure how long that lasted though I took a dose of clonidine about an hour into it or maybe two hours and that likely blunted it some. I do know that at about 4:30 pm I was feeling a little sleepiness, I took the pill at about 7:30 am this morning. I drank a couple of cups of coffee this evening though and I can still feel the Wellbutrin enhancing the effects of the caffeine after only one 150 mg SR tablet this morning. I have read that it has like a 21 hour half-life but so does the XL so it would seem that after they reach steady state in your system that their wouldn't be a lot of variation in effect.

Charles


Charles

I'm not sure either, I was on xl now I'm trying out the sr, if anything from the start I felt slowed down, but I guess it was finally allowing my mind along with my stims to focus and calm down a bit. I've been on 300 for two weeks and I take one in the am and one around 2pm. I get the best focus in the am just before taking it again .

I think the original posting had some great questions in it. When to take SR vs XL? Only take SR during the morning, or at night? During the afternoon? If so at what intervals (6 to 10 hrs)? I work from 8 to 7 and my 450mg XL might as well be aspirin. I haven't felt a thing over the last month. I'd love to hear answers to the OP's detailed questions if anyone has the experience to answer them.