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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 onefish2fishredfishbluefish2006 on Fri, 2008-11-07 - 00:19

   Hi,

 I have an 8 year old who was diagnosed with epelepsy last spring, We had no idea she had epilepsy,  She was always a verry smart child, walked early talked early she is in 3rd grade now and doing algebra, The thing is she has always had a violent temper, one minute she would seem to be this angel, then snap, she would throw fits for hours,literelly, hit, scream throw things, Of course we figured she was not  being disaplined enought, As soon as she had her first grand mall seizure, they put her on depakote, I have never seen my daughter so happy,and anger free, she no longer has her "fits " as we called them, she will still get mad but i notice that now she can control herself, I have always wondered, since the drug is used for people with bi-polar if mabey my daugher has it, bi-polar runs in my family and dozens of relatives have it. My aunt has Bi-polar,and she also had epilepsy when she was younger but she has grown out of it and hasnt had a seizure in over 27 some years.  So do you think that mabey the depakote,is what helped my daughters behavior? Also, makes me wonder if bipolar and epilepsy could be connected, and if it is does it mean either myself or her father has to have if she does??                  

   Hi,

 I have an 8 year old who was diagnosed with epelepsy last spring, We had no idea she had epilepsy,  She was always a verry smart child, walked early talked early she is in 3rd grade now and doing algebra, The thing is she has always had a violent temper, one minute she would seem to be this angel, then snap, she would throw fits for hours,literelly, hit, scream throw things, Of course we figured she was not  being disaplined enought, As soon as she had her first grand mall seizure, they put her on depakote, I have never seen my daughter so happy,and anger free, she no longer has her "fits " as we called them, she will still get mad but i notice that now she can control herself, I have always wondered, since the drug is used for people with bi-polar if mabey my daugher has it, bi-polar runs in my family and dozens of relatives have it. My aunt has Bi-polar,and she also had epilepsy when she was younger but she has grown out of it and hasnt had a seizure in over 27 some years.  So do you think that mabey the depakote,is what helped my daughters behavior? Also, makes me wonder if bipolar and epilepsy could be connected, and if it is does it mean either myself or her father has to have if she does??                  

Re: Depakote, Behaviors, and personality

Submitted by elizabeth meehan on Sat, 2009-08-08 - 02:21
I enjoyed your narrative. Just to add confusion Keppra was a nightmare for my son, then 8 who had such an extreme personality and mood disorder on it even my neurologist claimed she told the drug rep that the advertising on the product probably understated the case that it can cause some mood issues, but I know people who find it effective and minimal side effects, so it does seem that medication choice is truly individual, and not always easy to find the right one. I was greatly releived when his mood, personality returned to normal as soon as he was off keppra.

Re: Depakote, Behaviors, and personality

Submitted by LoveBeingAMom on Sat, 2008-09-20 - 01:23

Depakote is dangerous. We had 2 go arounds on it, and I can say with 100% conviction that it caused major behavior changes in my child. The doctors all agree with me now. Read on. Let my son and his 2 times on it be proof enough for all of you.

  Depakote does cause major mood and personality changes. My son had been on it; I reported the severe change in who he was to the neurologist. He had extreme aggressive outbursts, became very angry and agitated, was unreasonable, defiant beyond belief, and just unhappy. He commented all of the time that he had no friends and that he was a bad boy. I convinced the doc to get him off of the Depakote, and my son returned to normal.

After a few weeks of being on the new drug and having clusters of seizures that landed him in the ER, he was put back on the Depakote. Nobody believed me that his behaviors were from the Depakote and that to put him back on it was abad idea. They all said it was behavioral and emotional problems and that he needed firmer discipline.

Well, they started the second go around of the Depakote and he was worse than ever. The neurologist and all of the other docs finally agreed that the Depakote was basically poisoning my child. They immediately put him back in the hospital and stopped it cold turkey. It has now been one week that he has been off of Depakote, and my sweet happy go lucky - with just the right amount of mischief - child is back.

Don't give up - this drug is a mood stabilizer, but in some people has the opposite affect. We went through hell over the last 8 months, and my little guy suffered unecessarily. You know your child...if you see these symptoms that are extreme and new, get your child off of the Depakote. Contact me and I'll have our team of neurologists attest to the fact that Depakote can cause these extreme behavior changes.

- agression, severe aggression with little or no provoking

- mood swings

- irratibility

- lack of concentration

- glazed over look in the eyes

- extreme defiance

- regression in behavior, academics, social skills

- talks about parents dying

- slurred speach, babytalk, nonsensical talk

- anger towards everyone and anyone

 

Depakote is dangerous. We had 2 go arounds on it, and I can say with 100% conviction that it caused major behavior changes in my child. The doctors all agree with me now. Read on. Let my son and his 2 times on it be proof enough for all of you.

  Depakote does cause major mood and personality changes. My son had been on it; I reported the severe change in who he was to the neurologist. He had extreme aggressive outbursts, became very angry and agitated, was unreasonable, defiant beyond belief, and just unhappy. He commented all of the time that he had no friends and that he was a bad boy. I convinced the doc to get him off of the Depakote, and my son returned to normal.

After a few weeks of being on the new drug and having clusters of seizures that landed him in the ER, he was put back on the Depakote. Nobody believed me that his behaviors were from the Depakote and that to put him back on it was abad idea. They all said it was behavioral and emotional problems and that he needed firmer discipline.

Well, they started the second go around of the Depakote and he was worse than ever. The neurologist and all of the other docs finally agreed that the Depakote was basically poisoning my child. They immediately put him back in the hospital and stopped it cold turkey. It has now been one week that he has been off of Depakote, and my sweet happy go lucky - with just the right amount of mischief - child is back.

Don't give up - this drug is a mood stabilizer, but in some people has the opposite affect. We went through hell over the last 8 months, and my little guy suffered unecessarily. You know your child...if you see these symptoms that are extreme and new, get your child off of the Depakote. Contact me and I'll have our team of neurologists attest to the fact that Depakote can cause these extreme behavior changes.

- agression, severe aggression with little or no provoking

- mood swings

- irratibility

- lack of concentration

- glazed over look in the eyes

- extreme defiance

- regression in behavior, academics, social skills

- talks about parents dying

- slurred speach, babytalk, nonsensical talk

- anger towards everyone and anyone

 

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