Depakote anyone?

[one of many]

If I may borrow a Marine rally... "Semper Fi" ...Carry On

[liesl]

Think I'm heading in the direction of 'crash and burn'.

[Luna]

Is Epilim the same as Depakote? Epilim is a combination of valproic acid and sodium valproate. I'm on 600mg as well as a generic of Lamictin, 200mg. I read in one of these interaction-checkers (not sure exactly how reliable it was) that Epilim doubles the blood levels of a couple of other drugs, including Lamictin, so that puts me, effectively, at Lamictin 400mg.

And I'm still ping-ponging. Topamax made me depressed as all get out, and lithium made me hypothyroid. Epilim makes me nauseous most days, but the upside to that is I am eating a lot less, and finally losing the weight I put on with Efexor, Remeron and Zyprexa. At this stage being nauseous is better than putting on more weight, so I just put up with it.

[Midniteyez]

I really hope it works for you. I gained 60 pounds while taking it. Got to the point I couldn't deal with it and stopped taking it.

[Spirit]

Liesl, How are you doing? Haven't seen a post by you in a long time.

[Mr. J]

Does anyone know about the cognitive dulling in higher doses? I upped mine to 1500 a few days ago and I still notice no side effects whatsoever. I'm wondering how long it might take for cognitive dulling to set in because I've read so much of this problem with Depakote. Maybe I won't get it much because when I was upped to the max of Trileptal it hit me immediately, I was drugged off my ass. In addition, there was no difference in cognition after I switched from lithium to Depakote and tried Tegretol for a week in between. Maybe I'm real lucky or just too stupid to notice.

[hitmanica]

I have had some cognitive stuff with Depakote. Just made me dense. I would walk away from conversations and not even really understand what went on. Tough time. I have been on Depakote for like 10 years and my dosage has been steadily decreasing mostly in reaction to side effects. Luckily I haven't needed as much of it.

[Mr. J]

Thanks, Hitmanica. I've been on 1500 (the max) for a week or something now and have noticed no cognitive dulling or side effects whatsoever. Maybe it'll take time, I'll get away free, or my brain is already fucked from five years of lithium and Zyprexa. The latter is just a theory, I really don't know.

What I do know is that before bipolar struck, my memory was near photographic and fully photographic at times, now I don't trust it much as it's prone to failure. If I still do have a verbal IQ above genius level, it's in hiding somewhere.

[Luna]

I lost weight on it.
Epilim, that is.
(It's more or less the same thing; Epilim is a combo of Depakote + Depakene.)
The reason I lost weight, was that it made me so nauseous all the time, I couldn't face much food. I KNOW I shouldn't ask for a med just because it helped me lose weight, but some days Seroquel just makes me long for the Epilim...!