BPCharlotte Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Finally got a mood stabliser, Depakote 500mg twice daily, and concerned. 1. PCOS... I might want to conceive again in a few years... 2. Initial few weeks... Pdoc said I may be exhausted and hubby will need to *support* me... 3. Liver stuff. Read a little about it and wondering why I haven't had function tests before starting and that next appt for review isn't until May. And all the other potential crap, which I'm hoping some knowledgeable bods here will enlighten me on. What do you think? What should I expect? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Finally got a mood stabliser, Depakote 500mg twice daily, and concerned. 1. PCOS... I might want to conceive again in a few years... 2. Initial few weeks... Pdoc said I may be exhausted and hubby will need to *support* me... 3. Liver stuff. Read a little about it and wondering why I haven't had function tests before starting and that next appt for review isn't until May. And all the other potential crap, which I'm hoping some knowledgeable bods here will enlighten me on. What do you think? What should I expect? I'm on 500 mg of Valproic Acid, brand name Stavzor. It's basically the same thing as Depakote. I love it. It's one of the best things I've ever taken. I started on 250mg a day then moved up to 500mg. It's really stabilized my mood a lot. I haven't had any liver functions tests so far. The only thing that I had was a test for Valproic Acid blood levels. That's one of the good things about valproates. You can get a blood test to see if you're in the recommended therapeutic range. I wasn't exhausted at all. It helped me sleep better, which was good because I had insomnia from Lamictal. But I've never felt groggy or doped up on it. If you do plan to have another child, you will definitely want to go off it before you conceive. The valproates are associated with increased risk of neural tube defects such as spina bifida. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DogMan Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 starting up truly sucked. more than anything it made me really dumb. i couldn't compose simple sentences. but once you hit the right range [mentioned above that it is measured by blood serum levels] it's a good, effective drug for me that i don't notice taking. take it at a regular time, i notice taking it when i take it later than usual. i have my liver checked yearly now, i did have monthly tests for the first 6 months. eta: btw, my dose is 1700mg day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BPCharlotte Posted February 24, 2009 Author Share Posted February 24, 2009 My pdoc mentioned NOTHING AT ALL about liver function testing. Should I be concerned? Haven't taken any yet. Just got it today, so... Thinking of starting Thursday, worried about the exhaustion thing, as I have a parent's evening at my daughter's school tomorrow...yawn... It's bad enough staying awake at the best of times! (BTW, parent's evening means spending 3 hours in the *delightful* company of my ex-hubby. Oh joy!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scatty Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 I wasn't tired on depakote at all. Side effects were hair loss and acne. You do need blood work, especially in the beginning, as I said in your blog. Call pdoc and ask what hospital he's affiliated with and when he wants you to go in for blood work. I never would have known I was at a toxic blood level if my pdoc hadn't ordered a blood level within a week or two of starting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamzack Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 I got started on 1000mg of depakote while I was in a hospital. I felt like I had a horrific flu. They lowered it to 500mg after about a week, and after two weeks of 500mg I quit. :[ I don't think I had a real thought for those three weeks. My pdoc continuously tries to get me to start back on depakote, but I have AP exams and SATs and finals coming up and I really need to be able to function... If I started taking it again, how long would it take to sort of normalize in my system? I personally don't think I need it, but my mum is making my life super difficult. :[ (I've told all my doctors and my mum and everybody about how horrid the depakote made me feel physically and emotionally, but no one seems to be listening.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SashaSue Posted February 28, 2009 Share Posted February 28, 2009 I wouldn't worry so much about the long term side effects just yet, as you don't really know yet if it's going to be a long term med for you. Depakote was great for getting me relatively stable, relatively quickly, when I was in a mad, bad, sort of way. But it wasn't what either my pdoc or I wanted me on for the long haul. Once I was relatively stable, we were much better able to discuss other maintenance options, as I was, well, relatively stable, and she was no longer in crisis mode. As far as the initial fatigue, it definitely sucks. I can't think of a single mood stabilizer that doesn't have you feeling like crap initially though, so don't let that stop you from trying this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BPCharlotte Posted March 3, 2009 Author Share Posted March 3, 2009 Well, my absence from the board after *bordering on obsessive* lurking and posting probably says it all. Took the Depakote, felt a little groggy. Next day, really tired. Even with an afternoon nap, my brain refuses to function for much of the day. You know the feeling you get when it's painful to stay awake? Like you've stayed up all night and into the next afternoon? Headache, heavyness, woolly thinking... yeah, I'm sure you do. Well that's me now, on day... can't even be bothered to work it out. Errr... *looks at calendar* 6. Day 6. Spare time is now spent sleeping, whereas before it was spent on CB. Gutted actually, because I was kind of getting into the whole blogging thing and I think it helps. Still, I'll stick with it... You know the weirdest thing? All I want to do is sleep and yet at night I'm waking repeatedly. WTF?! So... there you go. Fingers crossed this tiredness and fuzziness lifts soon. Maybe it's the sacrifice I have to make? I hope not, I'm not really "there" for my family when I'm like this. Still, early days and all that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r2mnot Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 When I took Depakote, it did make me tired and stupid for a few days and gave me a slight tremor that didn't go away until I discontinued it. I quit taking it for several reasons- the tremor was about to get me fired, (still ended up getting fired though.) it started making me throw up, and finally I ran out and couldn't afford more. (Ended up in the psych ward shortly after.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneMarie Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 Maybe try moving the time you take it around a little. I assume your taking it at night, but maybe you'd find better sleep if you took it w/dinner or just before bed. ?? There's a little room to work with there. Also, as hard as it may be, try to force yourself to stay up during the day. As or more important is getting some exercise. That has a role in quality of nighttime sleep. I took Depakote for about a year. Didn't find it sedating, but haha, I didn't find my whole cocktail sedating at the time (Dep + healthy helping of Lithium and Lamictal). Adding a little Seroquel, however, did tip me out. When you see your pdoc again, ask for labs if s/he doesn't order them. Depakote has a serum level range similar to Lithium. The low is 40 and I don't remember the high end. If you are in the range and still sedated after a few weeks, discuss the possibility of lowering to 750mg to see if there's efficacy w/o sedation. Pdocs usually are not looking to put their px's to sleep all day. BUT, that's in a few weeks. You first have to give your body time to adjust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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