AboutDr Alan Galbraith Expertise I can answer most questions on drugs, both medical and "recreational". Answers can be given in either technical or layperson terminology. My main areas of interest are psychiatric, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular drugs.
Experience I have been a university lecturer/head of department for almost thirty years, but am now retired. My research interests were alcohol, smoking and cardiovascular disease.
Organizations Institute of Biology, London.
Publications Author of "Fundamentals of Pharmacology" 5th Edition published in November 2007 by Pearson Education, Australia.
Question I've read that the difference between the two is that SR is designed to be taken in two 150mg doses daily. I take one 300mg dose of SR daily...is that not the most effective course? I would also like to know what technically makes these different...the both contain the same amounts of bupropion, so is it just some sort of binder that allows different rates of release?
Thanks for your help!
Answer Dear Patricia
Drug companies do not normally release how their slow release preparations are exactly formulated. However, theoretically I would say that the 2 x150mg preparation will be more or less identical to taking 1 x 300 mg SR preparation per day. It may be that taking the 2 x 150 mg maintains more constant blood concentrations initially but after 5 doses the blood concentration of most drugs remains in what is known as steady state ie the blood concentration fluctuates only very slightly.
This be explained mathematically (usually shown graphically) and if you look up pharmacokinetics of drugs and steady state on the Internet you will find several sites that depict this.
