Posted by Ritch on August 12, 2002, at 13:24:42
In reply to Depakote and weight gain, posted by Kali on August 12, 2002, at 12:55:22
> I'm sure you've all seen this before. I'm a newly diagnosed bipolar who is coming off of 300 mgs of wellbutrin (to 150 for now) and 20mgs of celexa. My pdoc put me on 1000 mgs of depakote, but I'm noticing weight gain despite a rigorous workout schedule (I do bikram yoga). So I've been researching the others, trileptal, topamax, lamictal, and want to know if others lost the weight they gained when they stopped taking the depakote. Unfortunately, I suffered from an extremely severe eating disorder in my late teens, early twenties and before the depakote was feeling pretty ideal about my weight so gaining is an intolerable side effect for me. I would appreciate hearing experiences of others regarding this.
>
> I will say that it's a relief to have stable moods after feeling like a seesaw forever....
> Thanks
> Kali
Kali,I was on 500mg of Depakote previously and I slowly packed on about 20 lbs., and then the weight gain just stopped. I didn't try to prevent it, however. I switched to Neurontin, and I slowly lost the 20lbs., but it didn't control my temper as well, and now I am back on 250mg of Depakote. Well.. now I exercise twice as much and I have packed on about 8 additional pounds, and it just seems to stay there. It doesn't seem to be getting any worse, though, whew! So, I guess, in my experience you *can* easily lose the weight if you stop the Depakote and switch to something else that doesn't tend to cause it, so I wouldn't worry too much. There have been folks that have had success adding on a little Topamax to reverse the Depakote weight gain. I noticed some mild weight *loss* with Trileptal, when I tried it. But, it made me nauseous, and it curbed my appetite noticeably.
Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:116156
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020807/msgs/116161.html