Worked well for me although I needed a high dose to keep my blood levels in the therapeutic range. I didn't gain weight until I was on higher doses (over 2000 mg I think) but the good thing is the weight came off rapidly when I tapered off the Depakote. I had to be on XR; the regular release did not get my blood levels to the bare minimum.

Other side effects were my hair fell out. I treated that with Nioxin shampoo/hair care products and Centrum Silver (for additonal selenium and I think biotin). I have a lot of wild curly hair so the loss wasn't visible unless you really looked at my scalp closely, like getting a hair cut. I had some sedation but it's hard to know how much of that was depakote as I was always on it with other meds.

I wouldn't want to go back to it but if I was left without options I would, especially if we agreed to a time limit.