Posted by Ritch on December 6, 2002, at 22:44:42
In reply to Depakote-side effects not going away, posted by vegangirl on December 6, 2002, at 17:30:57
> Hi. I've been on Depakote for almost four months. At the beginning I didn't have bad side effects...now for the last 2 months I've been sleeping 16 hours a day, so groggy that if I try to get up I just can't function. The nausea is also still here. And for the last month I've had a headache almost the whole time. Well, I'll do a separate post on that-it's driving me crazy! My dr. doesn't think it's the depakote. Perhaps it isn't, but I don't know what else it could be.
>
> Anyone else have these symptoms for a long time? Oh, I'm on 750mg.
>
> Thanks.Yeah, I am all too familiar with that particular problem with Depakote. What are the natures of your cycles? Do you typically drop off at this time of year? If you can find some means to adjust the dose (predictably that is), to the seasons or to your particular cycle characteristics it will help a LOT. Dep. helps so much with my irritability I don't want to throw it off the table. But I don't want to sleep constantly either. Stimulants have been tried (but not all permutations, however), to varied success. Just a guess, but I bet your pdoc is observing all of the positive effects (mood flattening) of the Depakote, and doesn't want to lose that. Unfortunately, if you sleep too much (for whatever reason), it tends to aggravate depressive symptomolgy and reinforce it. You may need an augmentation strategy to offset the sleep inertia/daytime sleepiness to help with your depressive picture.---good luck...Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:130810
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021203/msgs/130849.html