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Depakote, Behaviors, and personality

Mon, 02/11/2008 - 19:22
My 7 year old daughter was diagnosed with Epilepsy a year ago this coming April.  She has been on Depakote since the beginning.  It seems to be doing very well at controlling the seizures, but she has become a whole different child.  It breaks my heart, and every day seems to get a little bit worse.  She is regressing academicaly, socially, and emotionally.  Her neuro seems to think it is all "behavior issues".  He doesn't want to change the meds but has mentioned it a couple of times.  He seems to think she will be like this no matter what we put her on.  I want my little girl back.  Anybody else struggling with this?

Comments

Re: Depakote, Behaviors, and personality

Submitted by mkrausni on Wed, 2008-09-10 - 15:55
My son went through the same thing.  He was on Depakote from April until this August.  In those few months, we saw a horrible change.  As with you, the neuro told us it was just behavioral.  I told him that there was no way.  He also started developing temors in his hands.  Again, they tried to tell us it wasn't the medication.  He is now on Topamax.  The behaviors have changed, but now he is experiencing new seizure activity.  He was diagnosed with Atonic Seizures, but on his first day of Pre-K, he had two Absence seizures.  Now the neuro is telling us that it was just the med levels that were off.  They don't want to see him again until next year.  I have a feeling we are going to switch neuros.  Good luck with your daughter.  Remember, no matter what, they don't know your child.  If you think something is wrong, fight for your child.  Ultimately, you know what your child needs.

Re: Depakote, Behaviors, and personality

Submitted by MrTwoSticks on Tue, 2008-09-16 - 21:21

Thanks for all the comments. New to this site/forum. Our 15 yr old daughter diagnosed with JME about 1 1/2 or 2 years ago. My wife have started to become very concerned at the depression, anxiety and anger showing up. My wife said that the mood alteration started about the time our girl started Depakote. I pooh-poohed that but starting looking for answers. We're going to find the second/third opinion. Her regular neuro seems to be a decent enough person but operates on tape, as in he talks, we listen and trying to get a question in is difficult.

FYI: I work in with special needs preschool children, including one on one with autistic children. In my classroom I have two co-workers, mothers, with special needs children, both of whom have been students in my classroom (I'm an "instructional paraprofessional" but am Teacher for our summer sessions). One child has an extremely rare genetic disorder. Fragile bones, stunted fingers, toes, big head; normal intelligence and above normal love-ability; life expectancy of about 15 or 16 I think. The other co-worker's child has another genetic disorder; no speech or language; wears hearing aids and while he was in our classroom (before his mom worked there) he required an adult to stay within 3 feet of him at all times. Literally. Because of his aggressive behaviors. Very very difficult child to deal with. For 4 hours a day - in contrast to his mom, 24/7.

 My wife called me at work when she had learned about the MRI and the diagnosis for our daughter. There was a pregnant pause on the phone; I imagined the worst, a brain tumor or.... Hearing that our daughter had epilespy left me feeling distraught, stricken. I began telling my 2 co-workers the news and, while they were sympathetic, I was able to see the perspective they brought to my child's 'disability.'

 Perspective is good but still one hurts and worries. Sometimes a lot.

Thanks for all the comments. New to this site/forum. Our 15 yr old daughter diagnosed with JME about 1 1/2 or 2 years ago. My wife have started to become very concerned at the depression, anxiety and anger showing up. My wife said that the mood alteration started about the time our girl started Depakote. I pooh-poohed that but starting looking for answers. We're going to find the second/third opinion. Her regular neuro seems to be a decent enough person but operates on tape, as in he talks, we listen and trying to get a question in is difficult.

FYI: I work in with special needs preschool children, including one on one with autistic children. In my classroom I have two co-workers, mothers, with special needs children, both of whom have been students in my classroom (I'm an "instructional paraprofessional" but am Teacher for our summer sessions). One child has an extremely rare genetic disorder. Fragile bones, stunted fingers, toes, big head; normal intelligence and above normal love-ability; life expectancy of about 15 or 16 I think. The other co-worker's child has another genetic disorder; no speech or language; wears hearing aids and while he was in our classroom (before his mom worked there) he required an adult to stay within 3 feet of him at all times. Literally. Because of his aggressive behaviors. Very very difficult child to deal with. For 4 hours a day - in contrast to his mom, 24/7.

 My wife called me at work when she had learned about the MRI and the diagnosis for our daughter. There was a pregnant pause on the phone; I imagined the worst, a brain tumor or.... Hearing that our daughter had epilespy left me feeling distraught, stricken. I began telling my 2 co-workers the news and, while they were sympathetic, I was able to see the perspective they brought to my child's 'disability.'

 Perspective is good but still one hurts and worries. Sometimes a lot.

Re: Depakote, Behaviors, and personality

Submitted by Carmen2003 on Wed, 2008-09-17 - 00:46

I am new here but maybe something I say will be of interest, the messages here seem to be somewhat mixed as to the topic so I'll throw this out.  I am 40 years old, BP II, I have a 7 1/2 year old daughter who had her first tonic-clonic seizure about two months ago.  I am trying to demonstrate a connection between childhood epilepsy and Bipolar behavior as well as provide a short analysis of my drug regime, my daughter's drug regime, and their respective efficacy - hopefully someone might see a connection between my experience and what they observe in their child (my thought being that I am better able to analyze the effect of a drug than a child).

I have been treated pretty successfully with a combination of Klonopin, Depakote, Welbutrin and Lamictal for the last 5 years.  I still have issues from time to time but compared to my pre-diagnosis behavior these medications have worked wonders.  With respect to Depakote, when I first started taking it I had a few experiences where I consumed huge amounts of food in one sitting - I am not a big eater so after a couple experiences I recognized what was happening and I have learned to stop eating when I know intellectually that I have eaten a normal portion.  A cognitive solution, but it works. 

A very interesting observation about Depakote - I used to engage in self-mutilation when I got extremely distressed (I would cut my wrists with razors - I have always thought that the physical pain overrode my mental pain and caused me to "revert" to normal thinking).  Anyway, when I started taking Depakote I "lost" my "ability" to self-mutilate.  I simply lost the desire as well as the ability to do it (I'm glad).  Very strange - Depakote targeted that specific behavior and eliminated it.  It makes me wonder what else it does to others if it did that to me.  Tying this in to the topic about Depakote affecting behavior, based on my adult experience it is obvious that it can have very specific behavioral impacts.  My rambling point is that as an intelligent adult I can identify a specific behavior as well as the drug which eliminated it - if it did that to me, it certainly seems to me that it could cause behavioral changes in others such as children.  This is probably my most on-point observation - If my child started taking Depakote and I observed behavioral changes I would have no doubt that they were caused by the Depakote because as you can see it can have very strange behavioral impacts.

Lamictal seems to be the most effective drug in my "cocktail."  I do get mild rashes sometimes.  Most interesting side effect is that when my dosage was pushed up I became very angry - I was easily provoked into abnormally aggressive behavior.  This started within a week of my dosage being upped and stopped just as rapidly when it was decreased.  My conclusion is the same as with Depakote - Lamictal can be effective but it can also cause behavioral issues - the key with me seems to be dosage level, as to others I don't know.

Klonopin is effective for making me sleep - my BP definitely gets worse when I don't get enough sleep.

I have no idea what the Welbutrin does, but it does have an "addictive" component in that when I take it too late in the day I get agitated.  This is the only med that affects me when I miss a dose.  As a side note, the name brand seems to work better than the generic - the generic seems to "wash out" of my system faster, something which I have confirmed via some research (generic isn't as good at maintaining constant level in blood).

Okay now I'll try to tie this together with my daughter.  Although "they" don't really understand BP, the drugs that are used to treat it (depakote, klonopin, lamictal in my case) all happen to be anti-epileptic medications.  In other words, BP is effectively a continuous seizure which results in abnormal behavior rather than physical seizures.  Combine this with my daughter having physical seizures and the genetic connection seems pretty obvious to me.  I have BP - she has seizures.  Any parents out there with BP and a child with seizures might want to think about this point - it might allow you to have a first-hand understanding of how medications can impact behavior in both you and your child.

After my daughter's first seizure the doctor prescribed Keppra.  She was seizure free while on Keppra (for a short time, admittedly) but when we tried to titrate her off of it she had another tonic-clonic seizure immediately.  We ramped her back up and she hasn't had an issue since then, but she does have seizures which affect her ability to speak, generally they last about 30-45 seconds.  I didn't believe her at first until I started reading up on the topic, now I have no doubt.  Lesson learned by me - I listen to my child now.

To conclude the story, it seems that the Keppra is working.  I have no intention of allowing her to be put on Depakote.  Maybe those of you whose children are having problems on Depakote might ask your doctor about Keppra.  I am not a doctor so this is a total shot in the dark.  For adults, look at my experiences and draw from them what you will.  It is clear that Depakote targeted an extremely specific behavior at the very least, as well as doing something to my ability to feel "full" when eating - I solved that problem by forcing myself to stop eating as much even though I still feel hungry sometimes, it has helped me keep the "Depakote weight" off.  If it does these things to me, what has it done to you?  What does it do to your child?  As to Lamictal, I have the sense that it is the most effective drug in my BP cocktail, but only when given at a specific dosage - when raised by a very slight amount it created rage inside me which I immediately recognized as abnormal behavior.

Sorry for the rambling semi-on-topic story.  Hope it helps someone trying to understand or solve medication issues with themselves and/or their child.  I don't think we have to live with medications which alter the behavior of our child - I think the medication can be changed or the dosage level adjusted.  Unfortunately the solution seems to be akin to throwing darts at a dartboard.  My heart goes out to all of you who have yet to hit the target, but don't give up hope.

PS:  It took me years to find a doctor who finally found an effective drug cocktail.  If you don't think your doctor is solving the issue, get another opinion. 

I am new here but maybe something I say will be of interest, the messages here seem to be somewhat mixed as to the topic so I'll throw this out.  I am 40 years old, BP II, I have a 7 1/2 year old daughter who had her first tonic-clonic seizure about two months ago.  I am trying to demonstrate a connection between childhood epilepsy and Bipolar behavior as well as provide a short analysis of my drug regime, my daughter's drug regime, and their respective efficacy - hopefully someone might see a connection between my experience and what they observe in their child (my thought being that I am better able to analyze the effect of a drug than a child).

I have been treated pretty successfully with a combination of Klonopin, Depakote, Welbutrin and Lamictal for the last 5 years.  I still have issues from time to time but compared to my pre-diagnosis behavior these medications have worked wonders.  With respect to Depakote, when I first started taking it I had a few experiences where I consumed huge amounts of food in one sitting - I am not a big eater so after a couple experiences I recognized what was happening and I have learned to stop eating when I know intellectually that I have eaten a normal portion.  A cognitive solution, but it works. 

A very interesting observation about Depakote - I used to engage in self-mutilation when I got extremely distressed (I would cut my wrists with razors - I have always thought that the physical pain overrode my mental pain and caused me to "revert" to normal thinking).  Anyway, when I started taking Depakote I "lost" my "ability" to self-mutilate.  I simply lost the desire as well as the ability to do it (I'm glad).  Very strange - Depakote targeted that specific behavior and eliminated it.  It makes me wonder what else it does to others if it did that to me.  Tying this in to the topic about Depakote affecting behavior, based on my adult experience it is obvious that it can have very specific behavioral impacts.  My rambling point is that as an intelligent adult I can identify a specific behavior as well as the drug which eliminated it - if it did that to me, it certainly seems to me that it could cause behavioral changes in others such as children.  This is probably my most on-point observation - If my child started taking Depakote and I observed behavioral changes I would have no doubt that they were caused by the Depakote because as you can see it can have very strange behavioral impacts.

Lamictal seems to be the most effective drug in my "cocktail."  I do get mild rashes sometimes.  Most interesting side effect is that when my dosage was pushed up I became very angry - I was easily provoked into abnormally aggressive behavior.  This started within a week of my dosage being upped and stopped just as rapidly when it was decreased.  My conclusion is the same as with Depakote - Lamictal can be effective but it can also cause behavioral issues - the key with me seems to be dosage level, as to others I don't know.

Klonopin is effective for making me sleep - my BP definitely gets worse when I don't get enough sleep.

I have no idea what the Welbutrin does, but it does have an "addictive" component in that when I take it too late in the day I get agitated.  This is the only med that affects me when I miss a dose.  As a side note, the name brand seems to work better than the generic - the generic seems to "wash out" of my system faster, something which I have confirmed via some research (generic isn't as good at maintaining constant level in blood).

Okay now I'll try to tie this together with my daughter.  Although "they" don't really understand BP, the drugs that are used to treat it (depakote, klonopin, lamictal in my case) all happen to be anti-epileptic medications.  In other words, BP is effectively a continuous seizure which results in abnormal behavior rather than physical seizures.  Combine this with my daughter having physical seizures and the genetic connection seems pretty obvious to me.  I have BP - she has seizures.  Any parents out there with BP and a child with seizures might want to think about this point - it might allow you to have a first-hand understanding of how medications can impact behavior in both you and your child.

After my daughter's first seizure the doctor prescribed Keppra.  She was seizure free while on Keppra (for a short time, admittedly) but when we tried to titrate her off of it she had another tonic-clonic seizure immediately.  We ramped her back up and she hasn't had an issue since then, but she does have seizures which affect her ability to speak, generally they last about 30-45 seconds.  I didn't believe her at first until I started reading up on the topic, now I have no doubt.  Lesson learned by me - I listen to my child now.

To conclude the story, it seems that the Keppra is working.  I have no intention of allowing her to be put on Depakote.  Maybe those of you whose children are having problems on Depakote might ask your doctor about Keppra.  I am not a doctor so this is a total shot in the dark.  For adults, look at my experiences and draw from them what you will.  It is clear that Depakote targeted an extremely specific behavior at the very least, as well as doing something to my ability to feel "full" when eating - I solved that problem by forcing myself to stop eating as much even though I still feel hungry sometimes, it has helped me keep the "Depakote weight" off.  If it does these things to me, what has it done to you?  What does it do to your child?  As to Lamictal, I have the sense that it is the most effective drug in my BP cocktail, but only when given at a specific dosage - when raised by a very slight amount it created rage inside me which I immediately recognized as abnormal behavior.

Sorry for the rambling semi-on-topic story.  Hope it helps someone trying to understand or solve medication issues with themselves and/or their child.  I don't think we have to live with medications which alter the behavior of our child - I think the medication can be changed or the dosage level adjusted.  Unfortunately the solution seems to be akin to throwing darts at a dartboard.  My heart goes out to all of you who have yet to hit the target, but don't give up hope.

PS:  It took me years to find a doctor who finally found an effective drug cocktail.  If you don't think your doctor is solving the issue, get another opinion. 

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