Depakote... experiences?

Well due to a manic/hypomanic episode in the spring and a very crappy current episode of a depression/anxiety they are changing up my lamictal for depakote at a minimum dosage.

Just wondering how other people have experienced this. As usual my first concerns are weight gain (I've finally got that under control) and sexual issues. So hoping to skip those things.

Depakote was great for me until I had an allergic reaction to it.

Just my personal experience...Depakote is much better than the other anticonvulsants but not nearly as good as lithium.

P.S. Losing weight on my current dose (1000mgs) of Depakote and no change in libido at all.

I gained some weight at the start, munchies were amazingly potent, but I seem stable enough now. Otherwise, it pulled me out of mania quite abruptly once it went into therapeutic range. 250mg and 500mg dosages didn't do much. 1000mg cranked it down tight.

Added the AP later and I've had no depression or manic episode for a good six months now. Just a nibble of paranoia remains... but ok enough.

No munchies and no problems between the sheets.

Am on 800mg (400x2 a day).

I gained 60 pounds over a year and my hands shook. I went off it, but it did help my depression.

Depakote gave me a lot of brain fog. I didn't experience weight gain or sexual side effects. It didn't do a thing for my depression.

Put the brakes on my hypomania pretty damn quick but didn't help depression. I need an AD with it too.

Also no appetite increase but I'm only on 750mg.

Weight gain, thinning of hair and hair falling out. But been on it 7 years seems okay now. Oh makes me mega thirsty though dry mouth is a biggie for me too

Voice of doom here: Depakote has three FDA black box warnings:

• 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

Box warning

Well thanks everybody. I'm starting pretty low.. so hopefully nothing. Disturbing that it doesn't do much for depression here though. Since that is my main issue at the moment. But I'm hoping it will address anxiety (which is bad right now) as well as keep up the role that lamictal played... keeping down my irritability and tendency to rage/shut down in response to stressful interaction (arguing with wife).

Lefty's voice of doom rings true. I began to have liver damage from it, which is why I stopped it. Fortunately my liver enzymes are almost back to normal.

May I ask what your dosage was when it tried to murder your liver?

I believe I had titrated up to 1500mg/day. It took six months, and my liver enzymes were 3x normal. They had been normal prior to beginning the Depakote.

Big on weight gain, but no sexual side affects. I take it along with lamictal, because lamictal helped with depression, and depakote takes care of mania very well. It's not a med I would have recommended for depression, but I'm not the doctor.

For anybody who has problems with hair falling out, I had that big time, 13 years ago, but then I switched from either the generic to the name brand or vise versa and it stopped completely. I take generic now and I don't have any problems, but we can be affected differently at different times, so I'm really not sure whether it was from name brand to generic or not, but if you're having problems I highly recommend trying a change.

Just found out I've lost another 5# of my *lithium weight" taking Depakote. Yay! All drugs, even such everyday ones as ibuprofen and acetominphen, have potential side effects but you should be aware of them not afraid of them. Your doctor will order periodic blood tests to monitor for any potential long term effects.

Thanks ��

I enquired about blood work when I started on it (400mg) and was told I had nothing to worry about since its a baby dosage...
I wonder if that logic still stands. I know I don't have useless service providers so I doubt they were lying to me.
Will check if my current dosage is still deemed safe for my liver.

The PI has a black box warning for acute liver failure. To my recollection it doesn't discuss dosages.

wow... well... ughh. Not sure about this. Hopefully my low dosage will keep me out of liver damage, hair loss and weight gain. Starting to wonder if I should just let my bipolar run free again.

As to the depression... I have a history of anxiety (which is intense right now) and I was told that the depakote would help that. I'm also on Wellbutrin and Abilify.. neither of which help with anxiety...

Even better then. Just re-read the warnings, says liver damage usually occurs within 6 months of use.
Also mentions minimum dosage for BP is 1000mg, just before that, which probably explains why none of my pdocs have been worried.
I've been on it since January 2015 and have not had any side effects, I'm sure I would've noticed a killer liver by now.

Thanks again ��

I was prescribed Depakote by a neurologist for severe migraines. It helped the headaches and also stabilized my mood. I had no bad reactions from the Depakote, except a lot of weight gain

This was my first bipolar drug. I was in top shape and after Depakote gained 50 pounds.

If you get hairloss (or want to be pro-active) Centrum Silver helps.

Depakote worked for me but I metabolized it way too fast and had to be on a very high dose (3000 mg or maybe 3500 mg) and even then my levels sometimes didn't stay up. On the high doses I did gain weight but hard to know if it was depakote or another drug since I was on it with Seroquel for a few years and lithium the entire time I took it.

I've read that as long as the dose is below 1000 mg major side effects are unlikely.