Yeah, you can take it long term and be fine. I was on a huge dose (3200 mg of ER) for 7 or 8 years and like I said every so often a liver value would be a little high but always was fine with a 2nd test. But it's been used for seizures for many years and is considered really safe.

I do not process drugs normally and so it was a hard one for me. At first I couldn't get a therapeutic level no matter what they did. Just before I stopped it ER came out and that got my level to therapeutic but barely. So the dose went up and up. Eventually it became clear that my level had to be higher than usual (125-130) for it to work but my body processed it so strangely that sometimes my level would be 90 and sometimes 135 and sometimes perfectly in the prime zone, without any dose changes or anything else to explain. That made it extra-sedating and when Seroquel starting working very well for me I was able to wean off the Depakote (I was on high doses of both together and it made waking up for work nearly impossible). I had so many blood tests while we tried to figure out what would stabilize my levels that I became quite expert at predicting my levels, which my pdoc found to be a weird little talent. I was usually right within 3 points. Some useful skill, huh...