Just started Depakote

My nurse practitioner just started me on Depakote ER 500mg twice a day. So far i'm on my second dose. She said it will take a week or more to build up in my system.

When i read all the warnings and side effects it kinda made me nervous. There's a "black box" warning that it can cause liver toxicity and for those being treated with it as a mood stabilizer, as I am, there is a higher incidence of suicidal thoughts and/or attempts.

Not to mention that since i don't have insurance, it's going to cost me almost $80/mo..and that's WITH the discount card from the manufacturer. (I don't qualify for medicaid and my boss doesn't offer health insurance.)

Has anyone been on this with any success?

She put me on it because of my Bipolar II and she said right now i'm in a "manic" phase and this should help. I sure hope so. My husband is at the end of his rope with me and i can't stand my life anymore the way it is now.

Hiya, I take the same drug, it's called epilim over here though.

I started at 200 mg am and pm which made it so easy to think and concentrate for the first time in years.

It made my tummy a bit upset at the start, but it went away after about a week.

Anyway I started a new job, blah blah, went up two more doses in to separate jumps as I got all racy. Nw I take 800mgs a day. If I take 400 at once I get really sleepy and relaxed.

Yes. So now I take 1 at breakfast, one at lunch, one mid afternoon and one at teatime. It made me sleepy at the start but now only if I take two at a time. No side effects or bad effects, except I miss hypomania haha.

It's worked wonders for mania and anxiety, and for concentration and making decisions and planning ahead, sleep etc.

Doesn't seem to take away depression but I can focus enough to do the other stuff like exercise etc to try t prevent that.

You just have regular blood tests for the bad side effects, noing to worry about too much I think.

Hope that helps

Oh yeah, I forgot to add, when I started on it I was well (ish) not manic at all, so that will be why you are on way more than I took at the start.

I hope things get better, I am sure they will,

I thought it was one of the medications ever prescribed for me, Darkest soul. I hope
you calm down as much as it helped me. I just wasn't so sensitive to other people was its major benefit and it really took care of that; I hope it will for you, too.

Good luck.

I was on so many cocktails of pills I took depakote for a year but no improvement finally I'm on lithium helps a bit I wake up with the shakes in the am but they go away quickly

It did not help a bit against mania. I had the most grandiose spending sprees of my life whilst on it. It caused major weight gain and hand tremor. The hand tremor was dose-dependent: the higher the dose, the worse the tremor.

I was on it but I felt seriously detached and took myself off after worrying about weight gain.

This is the first bipolar drug I was put on. It made me very sleepy at first. I also gained 50 pounds that I have yet to shed - but then again, I'm on zyprexa and that's hard to lose with, too. Never took the two together.

i was on the lowest dose and hated it. didnt take it long. it made me forget what i was saying mid sentence. I couldnt backtrack to figure out what i was talking about for the life of me. so then i would start crying. My mind is very valuable to me. I stopped taking it.