Wellbutrin SR or XL- my pharmacy messed up?

Question

I was taking Wellbutrin XL once a day in the morning. I had my prescription refilled and they gave me Wellbutrin SR at the same dosage instead with the same instruction to take once in the AM. Should I be concerned and call the pharmacy to find out why they did that or just go ahead and take the SR? I read that with the faster absorption rate of the SR, it could cause a dip in the amount in my blood stream before my next dose if only taken once a day. That is NOT acceptable given the reason I'm taking it, it's affectiveness would be declining right when I need it most.

Answer 1

No you shouldn't take the SR all at once. You should take half the dose in the AM and the other half at night. SR is the twice daily formula of Wellbutrin, whereas XL is the once a day formula. The are not interchangeable in that regard.

If the prescription was for XL they should not have filled it with SR no matter what. I would take it back to the pharmacy and get them to correct this mistake. Some people don't do as well in SR as they do on XL and you can have greater side-effects on the SR or IR formulas of Wellbutrin than the XL formula.