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ADD and Depakote

Mon, 07/11/2005 - 09:14
Has anyone heard of Depakote causing or making ADD or any learning disorders worse in a 6 year old child? What about the after effects of Tegretol?

Comments

RE: ADD and Depakote

Submitted by mlbspnc on Wed, 2005-07-13 - 12:53
Hi:I am not familiar with Depakote. However, my son's 3 1/2yrs old and diagonised with E about a year ago, and his Neru told me that childern with E are more prone to behavior issues. From my readings, I learned that 1 out of 4 kids with E will have behavior troubles and boys are more prione than girls. I also read in a book recently that kids with E are easily missed diagonised as ADD or ADHD and really it's either abscence szs or something assoc with E. The other thing I noticed is that my son is more moody when we added Zarotin to his meds. My son takes both Topamaz and Zarotin. Hope that helps. Your Dr should be able to give you some info. I know you can take your child to a Physologist to find out if it's behavior or side effects from meds. Please let me know if you learn anything that can help.All the best!MLB

RE: RE: ADD and Depakote

Submitted by katika on Wed, 2005-07-13 - 13:21
I read in a recent article that certain epilepsy medications such as phenobarb increase inattention in children who have already been diagnosed with ADD/HD but other AEDs like lamictal may actually have a positive effect on attention. I read this study in January 2005 so it is fairly recent.  My daughter has ADD and epilepsy  history and lamictal is one of the medications that we may consider looking at.  I would suggest like others to talk to your neurologist about whether Depakote has an effect on attention and behavior.  I always thought of depakote as a rather heavy epilepsy medication because of the potentially serious side effects in comparison with newer AEDs but of course I also read here that for some people it works well.  I usually consult this website to learn about AEDs and you may want to read more on Depakote and other meds here for your child: http://www.emedicine.com/NEURO/topic74.htm.  Hope this helps. Kati

RE: RE: RE: ADD and Depakote

Submitted by staceychil on Tue, 2005-07-19 - 11:35
www.inspirationallivingonline.com HelloI created a web site about epilepsy and other helpful topics about epilepsy. I am looking for others to also share there inspirational stories.I believe we all learn from each other. And by helping each other we not only help others, but we help ourselves. When I was writing my books and doing freelance writing it was not the research that helped me the most it was eoples stories and insight that helped me learn how to cope with my disorder and learn to accept myself, love myself and accept myself, so I could go on to live a happy productive life.Having any disability, disorder or illness is hard to live with; the key is to understand it, understand yourself and learn to tie the 2 together.It takes a long time but with inner strength, self-confidence, the abilty to believe in yourself and the concept anything is possible we can achieve our goals and meet our destiny and purpose in life.Why should life end because we have epilepsy. It does not. Each day is a new day, a new beginning with meaning, beauty and the ability to indure a fulfiling life with happiness.I need your help. I want to help people like myself who suffer from epilepsy. I have come a long way in the 5 years I have been writing and helped many through my writing.The world has come a long way in recognizing epilepsy, but we still have a long way to go. Help me build my epilepsy web site. Send me your ideas, stories, poetry. Help me teach and show others what epilepsy is, what we can do to teach others, help others and teach society that epilepsy is more common than you think.In the US there is 125,000 new cases a year. In the uk there much more... Many people with epilepsy have Autism (Why is this?)Help me Open society's eye'sThank you,Stacey Chillemistaceychil@aol.comwww.inspirationallivingonline.comwww.authorsden.com/staceydchillemi

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