Posted by Ritch on February 26, 2005, at 11:27:26
In reply to can GABITRIL replace DEPAKOTE?, posted by bipolarspectrum on February 25, 2005, at 23:55:58
> Hi,
> I've been hearing alot about gabitril lately.. As I understand that depakote works via GABAerngic modulation, i was wondering whether gabitril could do a similar thing with less side-effects??
> bpsI switched from Depakote to Gabitril back in 1999 or so. It's getting *pushed* a lot right now. Hmmm, any studies anybody, or is this just the drug company? Anyhow, I withdrew from the Depakote first and then started 4mg/day at bedtime. I increased by 4mg/day every week. Went up to a total of 24mg/day. When I reached that point I had a bad de-realization experience and stopped the stuff. When I first started on it I seemed to get an antidepressant effect at the lower doses (4-8mg/day), but that faded and I just got more and more cognitive problems with increases until I zoned out and it was stopped. The mild AD effect I experienced at first may have been a Depakote withdrawal reaction instead of a positive action of the Gabitril. In short, I'm not impressed with Gabitril. I did try it again about a year ago.. this time *added* to my Depakote. Only at bedtime to see if I could sleep better.. I just seemed to get *depressed* this time and felt blunted the next morning. It's mechanism is a GABA reuptake inhibitor. Depakote inhibits the enzyme that breaks down GABA. So, their mechanisms are different. Depakote also has some NMDA effects too from what I've read. I'm just not very impressed with Gabitril.
poster:Ritch
thread:463530
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050222/msgs/463725.html