Divalproex - Depakote

Rain,

There are a lot of people who are taking or have taken Depakote on this forum. I myself started taking it 8 days ago, and have not had severe side effects. It does make me drowsy during the day, but that is just it. So far so good.

Olivia

I took it for probably 5-6 years with great results. Then my liver got kinda messed up. Since it requires pretty high dosages (I think I was taking about 650mgs. daily). Things got screwey, not because of of the Valporic Acid (Depakote), but because I had a surgery and then got hit by a truck so I ended up on pain meds. That's when the liver began to protest. I would recommend it to anybody. Just not for me right now. Maybe after I get weaned off some of these other meds.

I took Depakote for two months this spring.  It made me eat all the time, made my hair fall out, and then made my liver hurt (sharp pains in upper right quadrant of abdomen).  I stopped taking it on my own (I don't recommend doing this, but I could no longer eat four ice cream bars at one time!)  I suppose it was helping me but I was also on Lamictal and I thought that would do the job and it has been doing fine as a mood stabilizer.