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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 dfris on Mon, 2009-08-10 - 18:12
My son, now 10, suffered horribly while on Depakote.  There were serious cognitive and behavioral side effects-- don't let the Dr. tell you otherwise.  My son is generally very sweet and good-natured, but became a "bear" on Depakote.  We had to stop it-- this was a few years ago, but he was able to tell us then that he just could not "stop himself".  He was very cranky, irritable and aggressive on Depakote.  I'm sorry to hear of your daughter's struggle on the medication. 

Re: Depakote, Behaviors, and personality

Submitted by TheSandy84 on Tue, 2009-08-18 - 13:59

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this quite as specifically as I'm going to... I haven't read all the comments...

 A lot of seizure medications are also used for people with bipolar disorder.

Think of your mood on a spectrum. Manic is on one end, depressed on the other. A "normal" person is in the middle with what I can visualize as casual fluctuations up and down. Depending on the type of bipolar disorder, fluctuations happen more quickly and more severely. Depakote is used to affect the mania in a person with bipolar disorder. It slows your judgement, giving you the time to think about what your doing. So this lowers your mood on the spectrum. Now think of what this does to a "normal" person. It lowers them on the spectrum. They are closer to depression, thus more inclined to be aggitated, aggressive, sullen, or whatever symptom you'd like to throw in there.

 Someone else made a comment about self mutilation. I self mutilated the most while I was on Depakote. This is almost non-existant on Lamictal.

These drugs are being used on teenagers and adults to specifically alter their mood. I can only think what it is like for a small child. Depakote is a drug they like to use before they use Lithium... If this medication isn't improving your lives, push for a switch.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this quite as specifically as I'm going to... I haven't read all the comments...

 A lot of seizure medications are also used for people with bipolar disorder.

Think of your mood on a spectrum. Manic is on one end, depressed on the other. A "normal" person is in the middle with what I can visualize as casual fluctuations up and down. Depending on the type of bipolar disorder, fluctuations happen more quickly and more severely. Depakote is used to affect the mania in a person with bipolar disorder. It slows your judgement, giving you the time to think about what your doing. So this lowers your mood on the spectrum. Now think of what this does to a "normal" person. It lowers them on the spectrum. They are closer to depression, thus more inclined to be aggitated, aggressive, sullen, or whatever symptom you'd like to throw in there.

 Someone else made a comment about self mutilation. I self mutilated the most while I was on Depakote. This is almost non-existant on Lamictal.

These drugs are being used on teenagers and adults to specifically alter their mood. I can only think what it is like for a small child. Depakote is a drug they like to use before they use Lithium... If this medication isn't improving your lives, push for a switch.

Re: Depakote, Behaviors, and personality

Submitted by CroninS on Tue, 2009-09-29 - 09:25

My little  girl is 10 years old. She is Depokote ER. She has the exact opposite. When we put her back into the Charter School she started eclerating again. Alot of the other medications make her feel like a zombie and makes her extremly tired all the time but the Depokote not only is managing her seizures it doesn't effect her mentally like the other drugs especially phenobarbital and tegretal does.

I hope things work out for you!

My little  girl is 10 years old. She is Depokote ER. She has the exact opposite. When we put her back into the Charter School she started eclerating again. Alot of the other medications make her feel like a zombie and makes her extremly tired all the time but the Depokote not only is managing her seizures it doesn't effect her mentally like the other drugs especially phenobarbital and tegretal does.

I hope things work out for you!

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