After over a year on carbamazepine (tegretol), I'm trying to change my meds. My manic phases are all but gone, but these were usually quite mild. However, I found that my depressive phases, although a little less intense, have been substantially longer in duration than with no meds at all, which was making life pretty miserable. Did anyone else experience this with carbamazepine?

Together with my psychiatrist, we reduced the dosage back in January, and this helped a lot (even though I'm experiencing mild periods of mania now, although nothing excessive). I admit, I stopped taking it entirely a few of weeks ago. Today, we agreed on switch the carbamazepine entirely for depakote. I was wondering if anyone else has swapped from carbamazepine to depakote and would you recommend it? I'm a little worried there seem to be more side effects (weight gain, hair loss)