10 replies to this topic

[ma7555]

Hello everyone, I am seeking some help and ideas from the community here regarding my case. I took wellbutrin in order to help me stop smoking. I started taking it around 6 months ago and I only took it for 5 days. Each day 150mg. It gave me tinnitus on the first day actually but I didn't know about this condition and that it can be permenant but I stopped as soon as I knew.

 

And here I am, 6 months later and tinnitus is still here in my left ear. Maybe it is slightly better now but not much. It was accompanied by ETD and ear popping at first. Thankfully this popping went away with a drug I tried (trypsin and chymotrypsin) but the tinnitus sound did not ease up.

 

I tried Sulpiride, melatonin, hydroxezine, clonidine, gingko biloba, piracetam and vinpocetine, taurine, nicotinamide riboside, vitamin b and d with no success.

 

I also tried Ketamine, once a few days after the onset which gave me an incredible spike that took a lot to subside. I decided to try it again a few days ago but it did not spike at all.

 

I started to try Bacopa a few days ago but I feel pretty lost. I would appreciate if someone could have an idea about the reason behind my tinnitus and how to solve it.

 

My hearing looks normal upto 8KHz, I do not know if there is a major problem beyond the normal testing frequency.

 

I have some Gabapentin and Rivotril but I am not sure if it is a wise idea to try. appreciate your input guys thanks a lot.

 

[Clavius]

I took wellbutrin for 5 months in 2019. When I developed tinnitus I immediately stopped. Sorry for not having better news, but the tinnitus is still there. Hopefully yours will resolve.

Anyway, just wanted to tag along this thread, hoping for a solution. It often drives me almost insane.

[ma7555]

I took wellbutrin for 5 months in 2019. When I developed tinnitus I immediately stopped. Sorry for not having better news, but the tinnitus is still there. Hopefully yours will resolve.

Anyway, just wanted to tag along this thread, hoping for a solution. It often drives me almost insane.

 

I am sorry to hear that. I hope you find a relief one day. From what I see online from wellbutrin induced tinnitus some people tinnitus resolve and others not. I believe there must be a solution somewhere. For me I only took it for 5 days so I am not sure what could have gone so wrong.

 

I hope someone managed to resolve it and share with us what worked for him.

[Izan]

You should consult your doctor first. But you could try a TRL4 antagonist like emodin for example. Blocking the endotoxin receptor could inhibit hearing loss / tinnitus.

Edited by izan82, 08 September 2022 - 02:47 PM.

[ma7555]

Doctors do not help a lot. I have tried Naltrexone before for 2 weeks which seems to be a TRL4 antagonist but it did not help.

[Izan]

I understand. Perhaps try a high quality Emodin product. Lapodin from idealabs for example.

[ma7555]

So far nothing is helping and I am really suffering. I would appreciate if someone had similar experience and managed to find something that made it better. i tried memantine later but it made me worse.

[gamesguru]

I would focus on the fundamentals first.

 

Posture. Suboccipital stretches. Meditation (even with ear plugs). Brown or pink noise (similar to white noise). Bimodal stimulation. Ear protection above 70 dB.

 

Ginkgo and/or ginger.

 

Magnesium, vitamin B6/B12, vitamin C and zinc.

 

You can look into tinnitus retraining therapy.

 

Beyond that you have to identify why Wellbutrin caused this, perhaps on a neuro-receptor level, and evaluate if the benefits of any treatments outweigh the potential negatives.

[ma7555]

So, I tried supplementing with all this before with no help. Recently I was tested negative for defeciency in mag, vit b6 and vit b12 so they are excluded too. I took zinc and vit 6 without improvements too.

The only thing that has been consistent in lowering my tinnitus by a great deal is clonazepam. My tinnitus goes from 8/10 to 2/10 1 hour after taking 0.5mg

Of course I can not use it due to addiction, so I keep using it once every month or so when things are very tough.

I vape and drink coffee, I have seen some research pointing that both caffeine and nicotine suppresses GABA inhibition so maybe I can get some benefit by stopping those although I highly doubt it.

I am also investigating how to raise the levels of allopregnanolone as it acts in a way similar to benzos.

[gamesguru]

Plasma magnesium is a poor indication of organ deficiencies. But the evidence for magnesium in tinnitus is primarily with noise-induced damage rather than drug-induced tinnitus. However, magnesium has a healthy calming effect, and may promote healthy GABA function. It's an NMDA antagonist and GABA agonist.

 

If it is due to GABA receptor downregulation, Kava may be worth a try. High dose taurine (> 5 g) could also confirm a GABAergic hypothesis[1].

 

One study says it may be more complicated.

 

Recent studies have found that neurotransmitters or modulators, such as glutamate, γ-aminobutyric acid(GABA), serotonin, dynorphin, dopamine, neurosteroid, acetylcholine(ACh) and substance P, are involved in tinnitus generation.

 

References

 

[1] Brozoski, T. J., Caspary, D. M., Bauer, C. A., & Richardson, B. D. (2010). The effect of supplemental dietary taurine on tinnitus and auditory discrimination in an animal model. Hearing research, 270(1-2), 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1...res.2010.09.006

[ma7555]

I tried taurine however in lower doses (1-2g) per day divided into 2 doses. Didn't feel much of an effect. Do you mean take 5g all at once or through out the day?

 

As regarding the neurotransmitters, I have really tried to play with most of them to see if there is any effect:

 

1. As wellbutrin in Dopamine reuptake inhibitor, my dr prescribed me a dopamine blocker "Sulpiride" at a relatively low dose. I took it for 1 month without an effect although it made me less anxious.
2. Serotonin: I really didn't touch that receptor yet because wellbutrin does not have an action on serotonin.
3. ACh: Dr then prescribed me Citicoline and then Meclofenoxate both with no effect (Wellbutrin has an antagonist action on some nAChrs)
4. NMDA: I tried memantine for 3 weeks, definetly made me worse (Knew that it also had an antagonist action on probably the same nAChrs as wellburin?)
5. GABA: Clonazepam helps a LOT, gabapentin helped for a few weeks then stopped (didn't take more than 600mg per day), baclofen maybe helped but not much. 

I once tried clonazepam + 300mg gabapentin and my tinnitus was 1/10

 

My thinking is now nAChrs are involved (they make it worse through antagonizing maybe?) and Gabakines help with clonazepam being the nearest I can get into a "cure".

I have no previous history with abusing any GABAergic drugs that could lead to this down-regulation but I have history with Ketamine abuse 4 years ago and I completely stopped it for 3 years before tinnitus happened. I am not aware of any drugs that act as nAChrs agonist (I think nicotine is which I already use in my vape).