LONGECITY

So I was put on Buspar for anxiety. I have been on it for 2 weeks.

Good: Anxiety is somewhat less. Unexpectedly, depression is almost completely gone. This is the first drug that has made a big difference to my depression, when SSRIs didn't help, tianeptine didn't help, agomelatine didn't help.

Bad: I have had no libido since the day I started it. None. Nada. Zip. Watching naked people is like watching trees grow. Completely gone.

Unfortunately, complete loss of libido isunacceptable for me. For libido loss from ADs, let's see, they recommend augmentation with, e.g., Buspar. Oh, wait a minute! So I am afraid going to have to stop this medication. A real shame though.

Conversely, Buspirone gave me back my libido wholesale. It's known to have a very binary response for both depression and libido, but they usually go together IIRC.

It basically works by disinhibiting 5-HT transmission (and probably DA) but that takes weeks to develop so it probably doesn't explain a symptom from Day 1. If you didn't say depression was completely gone I'd say it was anhedonia from the acute lowering of serotonin levels it causes. What dose are you on?

I had some of the same reaction as OP, but for me no serotogenic effects. I sometimes get anxious to get my haircut at the barber shop, I took some buspar and its like I felt shutdown, quiet, not really wanting to be around people or sociable at all. I only tried it for a week but pretty much ditched it so celebes may be right that you need to stick with it for a while. So maybe down the road I will try again, but stacked with something that adds serotonin and maybe makes me more sociable.

As for the sexual side effects, maybe try to stack it with something like horny goat weed or yohimbe and see if that adds any effect (after consulting with a professional of course).

As far as I remeber I didnt get this side effects.
My libido was unchanged, I was even more emotionaly attracted/interrested to the Girls.
I noticed only (but likely weak) good effects like improved conetration in the School and so.
Edited by Flex, 23 February 2014 - 01:30 AM.

Well, at least the washout is really quick.

I took my last dose Thursday night. Since I have had rebound of libido and then some. I'm pretty much insatiable.

I wonder about the reasons. Buspar is well-known to increase prolactin (a property that is often used in studies), so maybe that was suppressing my libido. Buspar also inhibits certain dopamine receptors AFAICT, so maybe I'm having dopamine rebound now.

My dose was 30 mg a day in divided doses.

afaik it inhibits to a weaker extend dopamine autoreceptors, which increases dopamine transmission.

maybe this has some influence

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/19024168
Edited by Flex, 23 February 2014 - 02:27 AM.

Yeah, above 70mg/day the pharmacology shifts. At a lower dose, you should have had more dopaminergic results acutely. I suppose you might just have an awkward receptor profile.
Edited by celebes, 23 February 2014 - 03:06 AM.

At a lower dose, you should have had more dopaminergic results acutely. I suppose you might just have an awkward receptor profile.

Well yeah, this I know already from my paradoxical reaction to almost every psychoactive drug I have tried. I've been kind of hoping to figure out what the awkward profile is via my reactions in the hope of better targeting it. But I am afraid I really can't quite figure out what buspar, for example, is actually supposedly doing to, e.g., dopamine. For example, it doesn't seem so clear to me that it is actually acutely or chronically dopaminergic or serotonergic, or the opposite. From the research I have seen, it could be either.

Other drugs I have tried that are dopaminergics also paradoxically reduce my libido, though, and seroquel (a dopamine blocker that I was prescribed fro sleep once) made me very horny (but had terrible side effects), so you may be right about buspar and dopamine.
Edited by nowayout, 23 February 2014 - 04:27 PM.

My dose was 30 mg a day in divided doses.

No nausea or dizziness ? You're so lucky. 15 mg and i need to lay down for at least an hour, and still be nauseous for at least ac ouple of hours... I've been taking buspar on and off for almost a year and the nausea/dzziness never diminished. Had to drop it because of that.
On the other hand, it actually increased my libido, especially in the first few weeks.

My dose was 30 mg a day in divided doses.

No nausea or dizziness ? You're so lucky. 15 mg and i need to lay down for at least an hour, and still be nauseous for at least ac ouple of hours... I've been taking buspar on and off for almost a year and the nausea/dzziness never diminished. Had to drop it because of that.

No nausea in my case. When you say 15 mg did you take that at once> Starting doses are usually 5 mg, and they recommend slowly increasing by 5 mg every few days. I don't think you can take it on and off, though - it doesn't work like that - in fact it can cause more side effects, including more anxiety, at first until the brain adapts.

On the other hand, it actually increased my libido, especially in the first few weeks.

I find that buspar gives me a slight euphoria. And any drug that makes me feel euphoric kills my libido. I suppose it makes sense - why would you want to have sex if you already have euphoria?

No nausea in my case. When you say 15 mg did you take that at once> Starting doses are usually 5 mg, and they recommend slowly increasing by 5 mg every few days. I don't think you can take it on and off, though - it doesn't work like that - in fact it can cause more side effects, including more anxiety, at first until the brain adapts.

My mistake, I meant 10mg at once ( 15mg at once would send me to bed the whole day..). Yes I started by small increments of 5mg , spread thru the day for a total of 20 to 30mg per day after a week or so. I stuck with it every day for a month, hoping that I would adapt and the nausea/dizziness would subside, but it never did, and it was just really unbearable after a while. I would need to lie down after every dose for almost an hour, and even then I would be constantly nauseaous for the rest of the day, then become very sleepy after.
It's a shame , because when it worked, the anxiolytic effect was one of the best I felt, very clean, no mood alteration in my case ( no euphoria or else ) or complete numbing of emotions like SSRIs.

After I gave up on it, I kept taking 5mg here and there occasionaly thru the day and despite the fact that it's not supposed to work on a take-as-needed basis like benzos, in fact it did work at times, in a sort of random fashion. Even when I was taking it regularly, the anxiolytic effects would appear randomly as well, some day nothing at all , other days I would feel a relief for a few hours, then nothing, etc.. Overall it was just very unpredictible.
It's really amazing how wildly different can be the side-effects, terrible nausea for me , and none for you.

As for the libido, it made me very horny for the starting week or so, then things went back to normal.
Edited by BlueCloud, 24 February 2014 - 10:46 AM.

Buspirone turned OFF my libido.

I took this stack for only 1 month!: venlafaxine 37,5, bupropion 150 and buspirone 30. Earlier bigger doses of venlafax.

I went through horrible withdrawal from buspirone (which continues in many aspects, not only libido).

 

I know both (withdrawal and DESTROYED LIBIDO) are either caused by buspirone alone or in combination with other two meds. It's not venlafaxine - I know it - tapered this drug and SSRI in monotherapy. Libido always came back quickly.

 

I tapered this **** for 5 months. And 10 weeks passed since last tiny dose.

 

I am so desperate. I already know it's possibly due to 5ht1a agonism but don't know what to do.

Could someone advise?

i mixed it with opiates and it kind of helped with their side effect profile but beyond that its completely useless. cant really feel happy on it and its effect on anxiety is 0 compared to benzos. hell, even herbal stuff works for anxiety better. biggest side effect though is cannot get sleep on that crap. do not take it at night!

Enhanced my libido mildly. I loved it for anxiety, esp social anxiety, but it gave me terrible brain fog and made me unable to even read. It also effected my ability to learn very negatively. Life has been much better since I stopped

no shit

It's interesting that 3 people here reported stronger libidos with Buspar and 3 people reported a loss of libido... Could be from differing responses to oxytocin release.

 

Did anyone notice a positive effect on cognition? Better memory or focus? Since too much serotonin can be bad for cognition, and there was also that study that showed melatonin + buspirone together promoted neurogenesis, I'm curious to hear any anecdotal experiences about positive cognitive effects of buspirone.

Edited by Furniture, 17 January 2020 - 10:59 PM.

I'm thinking about giving Buspirone a try for anxiety, should be less problematic medication than benzos.

 

Is it true you have to take it three times a day? Can it be combined with SNRI (Duloxetine)?