Depakote, Depakane is Valeproic acid , it is an anti fonvulsanr mood stabilizer, it was discovered in the early 70's , they used it to clean laboratory rats cages , they epileptic mice were noticed to be strangely free of seizures in the days after there liter was changed and cage was cleaned , my Mom was one of the first human trials on it for epilepsy , it did not help much if at all in her case , as a mood stabilizer I have seen both good and bad, no one takes anti convulsions if they can be avoided because they tend to take things to say "flat level" no highs no lows just kind of blah, I take Trileptal for epilepsy, it doesn't always work and I will seize uncontrollably and have to be treated in the hospital for a week or so at a clip to control the seizures. Rule of thumb the more medication you take the worse the potential adverse effects.