[wildflowerchild25]

Has anyone had any success with depakote treating depression? My nurse put me on it to knock me out of mania but it seems my natural cycle has taken over and I've crashed headfirst into depression, at least for today. My depressions have always been almost impossible to treat. I have emsam but I have to wait for the depakote to get in my system before I try that, otherwise I'll just spin right into mania again. Everything I've read about depakote says it's for mania.

I almost want to go IP to get this rapid cycling under control again but they won't do anything my nurse isn't already doing. And I'll traumatize my son. I don't want to do that. I'm safe so there's no point. I have to learn how to get by without running to IP all the damn time.

Anyone? Depakote for depression?

[Guiness187055]

When I took depakote it was for overall mood. I don't remember it working for depression though..YMMV

[bioChE]

Depakote certainly didn't work for my depression. My doc tried to go with it as monotherapy, and I spent three weeks in the worst depression of my life. My doc said it can work to treat both mania and depression in the short term, but it's long-term control of depression is not good.

He added Latuda and Lamictal, and those pulled me out of the depression.

[franz kafka]

IP pdoc tried using depakote to end my depression, but what happened was it wrecked my thyroid and I ended up in an even worse depression. Never going near that stuff again. I hope it works better for you.

[bioChE]

I went off Depakote because it started to destroy my liver. Six months of it and my liver enzymes were 3x higher than normal.

And it made me stupid.

[wildflowerchild25]

I took it when I was 15. I don't remember much about that time though. I don't remember why I stopped taking it, whether it was pdoc ordered or if I just quit. I know I quit my meds around 16.

I don't remember how long I was on it either. But I feel like I would have remembered if it was ****ing up my liver. But maybe not.

I don't want to be on it at all really. Too many horror stories and not a lot of people saying it helped. But it's like the only thing left. I'm just afraid of it messing up my liver. And gaining tons of weight.

[bioChE]

The liver stuff is likely reversible if it happens. My enzymes are going back. Although there is a black box warning on the PI of sudden liver failure and death. But if it didn't do that to you when you were young it probably won't happen now.

There's three separate FDA black-box warnings for Depakote that you might want to look into:

• Hepatoxicity, or liver damage which can lead to liver failure and death.

• Teratogenicity, or birth defects when used by pregnant women.

• Pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas that can be deadly.

I've been chugging this stuff on and off for years and no pdoc has mentioned the appropriate black boxes. Do they receive some sort of compensation for prescribing the drug? I'm on Depakote and Lamictal and if I don't take a beta-blocker like propranolol or a benzodiazepine like Valium my hands shake so much I can't write with my hands or use a computer keypad. The tremor is very helpful if you want someone to take you seriously. If someone is so impolite as to ask about the tremor, I shame them by explaining it as a much more serious ailment like epilepsy or a brain injury. Then I kick them in the shins.