I'm the same as Sniffles. I've been on 500 mg of Depakote ER for 15 years and was recently upped to 1750 due to my last episode. I have had absolutely no problems with it, no side effects, I take it at bedtime but it doesn't make me sleepy because I've stayed up a long time after taking it many times.

And, no weight gain.

I also took Zoloft with it - now Wellbutrin & Lamictal have been added with the goal of replacing Depakote ER with Lamictal.

NOTE: I first began taking "Depakote" and had constant diarhhea. I didn't associate it with the Depakote and actually had a colonoscopy to see what was wrong. Nothing was found. Somewhere along the line pdoc switched me to Depakote ER and the diarhhea stopped immediately. So that's one thing I'd clarify...for me there was a difference between Depakote and Depakote ER.