Bipolar Disorder Medications: Depakote (Divalproex Sodium)
Depakote, like Tegretol is an anticonvulsant drug used to treat bipolar disorder MANIA. It’s a misconception that Depakote is a complete mood stabilizer as it’s not as effective for depression treatment- it’s often used in conjunction with other medications that do help depression in order to fully treat bipolar disorder.
When I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I started with lithium (considered the only true ‘mood stabilizer’ ) – I had really severe side effects with lithium and had to try the next in line drug for people initially diagnosed with bipolar disorder – Tegrotol. When that didn’t work I tried Depakote.
This was a very normal treatment plan in 1995. These days, for those of us with bipolar II (we don’t have full blown mania), Lamictal (Lamotrigine) is often the drug of choice instead of Depakote or Tegretol.
For people with bipolar I (full blown mania), Depakote is still a common drug. Depakote works for many people, but the problem is often weight gain.
It’s estimated that the anti psychotic Zyprexa can lead to around a 20 pound weight gain- but it can be more for Depakote. NOT FOR EVERYONE, but for some. Depokote side effects completely depend on how well your liver can process the drug. Some truly can take Depakote with no weight gain.
These days, you have more options than Depakote alone if the weight gain is bad- talk with your health care professional and explore Lithium, Tegretol and anti psychotics. All are anti mania drugs- even the anti psychotics such as Abilify and Serequel are used for mania control.
If you’ve had a lot of weight gain on Depakote, you definitely need to check out your options with a health care professional. If it’s working with little weight gain- that’s fantastic.
Drug side effects are a trade off. Weight gain is really hard to deal with.
These drugs seriously alter our brains which leads to side effects, but they also save our lives.
Julie
PS: I love my Lamictal!
Dear Julie,
I’ve been on Valpro/Epilim (same drug as depakote, just different names in Australia) for around 15 years now. Weight gain? Probably, but nowhere near as much as when I was properly diagnosed with Bipolar and put on Seroquel – that packed on about 20 kg!!)44 pounds) in under 6 months.
(Prior to that, I’d been diagnosed as “just” depressed and had no idea that the antidepressants were causing the rapid mood swings!)
I’m scared to change though, since this combination seems to be keeping me stable. The Valpro/Depakote also has another weird side effect that (anecdotally) several of my friends and I have noticed – it makes your hair curly!
Hi Caity,
Thanks for your comment. wow! It’s great you can stay on your meds without a big weight gain.I’m having so much trouble with my weight right now. I tried an experimental amino acid last year and darn…… 15 pounds around my stomach in one month. It makes you eat like an animal!
I call the Serequel weight gain the Serequel stomach!
Also, I took an anti psychotic that made my eyebrows grow really long!
Thanks heavens for my Lamictal!
Julie
I had a very adverse reaction to Depakote. My blood platelets dropped from 280-315K to 20K. If that wasn’t bad enough I was having surgery at the time and they had a hard time stopping the bleeding. The Dr’s thought that I had luekemia and I had to have a bone marrow biopsy, before they figured out it was the depakote. Not a good drug for me.