In 2020, it was the eighteenth most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 28 million prescriptions. It is on the World Health Organizations List of Essential Medicines. Medical uses
Depression
The evidence overall supports the efficacy of bupropion over placebo for the treatment of depression. However, the quality of evidence is low. Most meta-analyses report that bupropion has an at-most small effect size for depression. On the other hand, one meta-analysis reported a large effect size. However, there were methodological limitations with this meta-analysis, including using a subset of only five trials for the effect size calculation, substantial variability in effect sizes between the selected trials—which led the authors to state that their findings in this area should be interpreted with "extreme caution"—and general lack of inclusion of unpublished trials in the meta-analysis. Unpublished trials are more likely to be negative in findings, and other meta-analyses have included unpublished trials. Evidence suggests that the efficacy of bupropion for depression is similar to that of other antidepressants.Over the fall and winter months, bupropion prevents development of depression in those who have recurring seasonal affective disorder: 15% of participants on bupropion experienced a major depressive episode vs. 27% of those on placebo.
This advisory was based on a review of anti-smoking products that identified 75 reports of "suicidal adverse events" for bupropion over ten years. Based on the results of follow-up trials this warning was removed in 2016.In 2012, the U.S. Justice Department announced that GlaxoSmithKline had agreed to plead guilty and pay a $3-billion fine, in part for promoting the unapproved use of Wellbutrin for weight loss and sexual dysfunction.In 2017, the European Medicines Agency recommended suspending a number of nationally approved medicines due to misrepresentation of bioequivalence study data by Micro Therapeutic Research Labs in India. The products recommended for suspension included several 300 mg modified-release bupropion tablets. Society and culture
Recreational use
While bupropion demonstrates some potential for misuse, this potential is less than of other commonly used stimulants, being limited by features of its pharmacology. Bupropion misuse is uncommon. There have been a number of anecdotal and case-study reports of bupropion abuse, but the bulk of evidence indicates that the subjective effects of bupropion when taken orally are markedly different from those of addictive stimulants such as cocaine or amphetamine. However, bupropion, by non-conventional routes of administration like injection or insufflation has been reported to be misused in the United States and Canada, notably in prisons. Legal status
In Russia bupropion is banned as a narcotic drug, yet not per se but rather as a derivative of methcathinone. In Australia and the UK, smoking cessation is the only licensed use of bupropion. References
External links

"Bupropion". Drug Information Portal. U.S. National Library of Medicine. "Bupropion hydrochloride". Drug Information Portal.