Increasing depakote

Had my physical in preparation for my appt with my new pdoc. In addition to the normal bloodwork they also checked the levels of depakote in my system, and it's low. Not up to therapeutic levels yet.

I'm only on 500mg (250 2x/day) so it's not a huge surprise. I'm just wondering what will happen if we increase the dose.

The side effects I got were nausea, abdominal pain, and loss of appetite. I lost about 15-20 pounds too, I assume because I wasn't eating. They went away after the first few weeks and now I don't have any side effects that I know of (I have intermittent hand tremors but that could be a couple of things).

Basically, I'm worried that higher doses will lead to other unpleasant side effects. When you increased your depakote dose, did you get new side effects?

I'm on 500mg twice a day and all I have is a dry mouth and weight I can't shift but that could be due to a number of factors. When I went from 250mg twice a day the dry mouth was the main problem for me

When I increased Depakote, I experienced increased appetite, weight gain, nausea, and feeling out of it.

I was on a high dose (3500 mg I think) because my body had trouble keeping my levels up. The only side effect I had was weight gain and that went away when I went off depakote. I was also sedated but it's hard to be sure how much of that was Depakote and how much was Seroquel and other drugs.

I tend to get the rare side effects. Stuff like drowsiness doesn't happen to me.

I get like, abnormal orgasm.

So I'm hoping this holds true for this - I'll take the weight loss. I'm just worried that on higher doses that'll turn to weight gain. Do you think that's possible? On a low dose have one side effect, then on a higher dose get the opposite side effect?

It's certainly possible, really anything is possible when it comes to side effects.

My experience with a higher dose of Depakote (1500 mg/day) was weight gain and a really "fuzzy" head feeling. It felt like I was trying to think and my brain was just slow to do it. That feeling went away when we decreased my dose to 1000 mg/day.

The other side effect I have had is elevated liver enzyme levels (3x normal) which weren't there when I started Depakote about a year ago. This is the reason for lowering and ultimately stopping the med altogether. It's been a couple days without, and so far so good.

I'm assuming your blood work includes liver function (AST/ALT), but if it doesn't that's something you need to talk with your doctor about.

Best of luck with increasing your dose, hope it helps!

Oh yeah, we did liver function tests too and it's functioning really well (thank goodness!) I also found out I have normal cholesterol which I was worried about. Family history of high cholesterol and I eat a lot of cheese. And bacon.

On 1500 mgs of depakote the only side effect I had was hair loss. But it was really bad. So I ended up switching to trileptal. I was really manic tho the Times I've been put on depakote.

I was on 1500mg of Depakote for about a year. Side effects for me: Major zombification, weight gain (I mean tremendous from about 230 to 273), extreme drowsiness, hand tremors, but that was it really. Moving over to Lamictal now, can't stand Depakote anymore. Mind you it worked very well in controlling my mania, but it made me a complete zombie, sleeping 15 hours a day, no emotions, empty thoughts, you name it.