Depakote worked well for me although keeping it working was a hard job. I processed it really quickly and so it was very hard to keep me at a therapeutic level. We were constantly increasing doses. That is not typical at all. I actually got to the point that I could predict what my lab values were going to be pretty accurately which my dr was fascinated by. Eventually we learned I needed my levels to be 125-130 instead of about 100 which is typical. That caused more dose increases. I was on it a long time. I did not gain weight on iniitally (8 lbs in 6 months) although later I did on higher doses. I did have trouble with hair falling out but taking centrum silver, selenium and biotin helped that. I also used a special shampoo I got at the salon for a while because when my thyroid gave up from lithium the combination caused enough hair loss to be noticeable. That shampoo helped greatly and I don't think the depakote alone would have ever caused nearly as much as the hypothyroid/depakote/very sick from a 6 month battle with lithium toxicity battle did.

So it worked for me although it took work on my part and my dr's part. I wasn't sad to get rid of it but while I needed it was very valuable.