nerve damage from Depakote

[Carly]

-I have taken ( paxil PAROXETINE,) Hated the memory loss which only frustrated me. Problem sleeping. Restless legs. Helped with FM
-Elavil.(amitriptyline). The more I took the worse the depression. Did not help much with Fibromyagia. Wanted to isolate myself. Good for sleeping
-Effexor Venlafaxine HCI helped for a while. Was OK for memory. After awhile though nothing bothered me..... This bothered me…so I became depressed anyway. Wanted to drink alcohol like a fish. Never got enough. Like no control, no inhibitions. I was up to 300mg a day. Did help a little with Fibromyalgia. I have quite all meds but am still struggling with depression and FM pain. Now the Psychiatrist wants me to take Depakote (Apo-Divalproex 500mg). I have not dared to try it yet and reading all your experiences is scaring me more. HELP!!!!

[EZ Rider]

Wow this is intersting. This girl Suzi trashes Bil and Abbott for saying the drug and the company is helpful, some support her and others testify that the drug worked for them. I know that in the US alone last year the company sold over a billion dollars of the stuff. I don't think docs would use it if what Suzi said was true. The FDA is very strict...how about all those new warnings for suicide with antidepressants, and diabetes for the antipsychotics. depakote has bee a lifesaver for me and for over 25 years has been prescibed for patients with epilepsy migraine and bipolar...maybe Suzi is Bipolar and needs a little depakote Ha Ha

[In a quandry]

I have been on a low dose of depakote for bipolar disorder for three years now taking 750mg day. Recently I felt quite unwell with flu like symptoms muscular aches joint pain and bad headache. In the early stages my hair fell out and regrew curly. I have always had a slight stagger when I walk on this drug and my vision blurs then I see double.My optician initially put it down to tiredness. Now apparently my eye muscles are not co-ordinated. Sometimes I get this weird feeling in my head when all I register is a rapid side to side eye movement. I also get what seems like a complete mental block where my brain comes up with the wrong words, they have attributed this to mania but I know when I'm manic by the type of thoughts I have, and this seems to be happening now when I am definitely not manic. At times my brain has been unable to order the alphabet with about 5 letters I could not sequence. My GP is now sending me to a neurologist as I am showing abnormal co-ordination tests, the psych seems to think depakote is not to blame. On reducing depakote to 500mg my mood rapidly escalated with positively manic thoughts and verging on psychosis. I am an intelligent women PhD biochemist and I am very concerned about what these flaming drugs are doing to my mind and body

[Marlo]

I also was on Depakote for one 3 weeks. I know have to have my liver checked monthly. It is slowly starting to fail. I am 34 years old and a mother of 3. A 12 year military VET. I was put on this drug to try and help control Migrain i have been having since a 18 year old child ran a stop sign and caused a car accident that I was the grunt of the impact with.
My doctor told me that 1 out of 100 people have a bad reaction to this drug. I guess some of us just drew the short straw. But after 2 years we have the migrains under some control. But my liver on the other hand is not doing so well. I still have all my hair also, but I do have a ALOT of new stretch marks from when my stomach swelled up. In which I looked like I was 10 months pregnate.

[Marlo]

Carly wrote:

-I have taken ( paxil PAROXETINE,) Hated the memory loss which only frustrated me. Problem sleeping. Restless legs. Helped with FM
-Elavil.(amitriptyline). The more I took the worse the depression. Did not help much with Fibromyagia. Wanted to isolate myself. Good for sleeping
-Effexor Venlafaxine HCI helped for a while. Was OK for memory. After awhile though nothing bothered me..... This bothered me…so I became depressed anyway. Wanted to drink alcohol like a fish. Never got enough. Like no control, no inhibitions. I was up to 300mg a day. Did help a little with Fibromyalgia. I have quite all meds but am still struggling with depression and FM pain. Now the Psychiatrist wants me to take Depakote (Apo-Divalproex 500mg). I have not dared to try it yet and reading all your experiences is scaring me more. HELP!!!!

Carly
I only say this because I have gone threw some of the same things.. But I just had my thyroid checked. I found out that my thyroid was messed up. I was put on thyroid meds and my depression is gone. I have been off all my depression meds for 6 months now and my migrains have almost stopped. But I see a neuo doctor for those. I am a full believe now to go and ask for a full blood work up. Don't leave anything out. Alot of things that are wrong are the cause of one small thing being out of wack.

[nls]

In a quandry wrote:

I have been on a low dose of depakote for bipolar disorder for three years now taking 750mg day. Recently I felt quite unwell with flu like symptoms muscular aches joint pain and bad headache. In the early stages my hair fell out and regrew curly. I have always had a slight stagger when I walk on this drug and my vision blurs then I see double.My optician initially put it down to tiredness. Now apparently my eye muscles are not co-ordinated. Sometimes I get this weird feeling in my head when all I register is a rapid side to side eye movement. I also get what seems like a complete mental block where my brain comes up with the wrong words, they have attributed this to mania but I know when I'm manic by the type of thoughts I have, and this seems to be happening now when I am definitely not manic. At times my brain has been unable to order the alphabet with about 5 letters I could not sequence. My GP is now sending me to a neurologist as I am showing abnormal co-ordination tests, the psych seems to think depakote is not to blame. On reducing depakote to 500mg my mood rapidly escalated with positively manic thoughts and verging on psychosis. I am an intelligent women PhD biochemist and I am very concerned about what these flaming drugs are doing to my mind and body

I am taking the generic form and the same things are happening to me. My hair falls out and is growing back curly. I have memory loss, joint pain, weight gain - I can't even get back to my normal weight range. Not to mention the other things that are happening. I talk to my therapist and GP and I get ignored because it's the Bi-polar talking. As if I wouldn't know that something isn't right with me. Good luck. I am going to start looking into alternative healing. medicine. Life was better before the meds.

[Ryan]

I was on Depakote back in 1999 and 2000, when I was a kid and first diagnosed with bipolar disorder. They had to take me off because it screwed up my liver. I was put on lithobid after that. I did so well from then on, up until April 2008 when I started having tremors, caused by lithium intoxication. 3 weeks of hospitalization later, they put me on Depakote again! I've been on it since, and I hate it. My psych doesn't want me off of it, calls it my 'bread and butter'. I develop bruises so easily now, I'm always tired, I've gained 20 pounds, I've lost tons of hair, not to mention other side effects. I'm going to get an appt to see him, tell him I'd rather go back on lithobid regardless of the chance of toxicity.

[SteamyWeenie]

I was on Depakote for some time for bipolar disorder...

was I manic? I couldn't tell ya
BUT, I stopped taking it.. I don't remember exactly what I was feeling but it started making it painful for me to smile.. everytime I did my skin would crack as if it was concrete and an eathquake just occurred..

it was painful and no matter what I did it wouldn't stop from happening, my mood was a bit more subdued but I discontinued using the drug, after all it isn't attractive not is it easy trying to have sex with an unattractive gash on the side of your mouth..

thank god you guys posted about your horrible experiences, im sure other people will benefit as I did from reading thins to discontinue use of the medicine.

[SteamyWeenie]

oh btw..

my psych never returned ANY of my calls, never cared to even listen to my side effects or issue follow ups..

if anybody in miami sees dr.delgadillo. RUN!!!

I was on TONS of other horse tranquilizers while on this depakote when the goal was to make me sleep. a horrible experience! I can DEFINITEY agree with the weight gain on here in reference to depakote.. a good 28.lbs, that I dropped instantly when I got off the drug.

I never got checked by a dr but my skin was turning yellow..(common side effect of liver damage) which is another reason why im glad I got off of it before anything horrible happened.

alternative medicine for this bipolar disorder which I looked into consists of mostly vitamins..
fish oil, flaxseed oil, etc.. I followed it with vitamin e, c, and multivitamins..

bipolar is misdiagnosed with add a lot of time so the same remedies work

depakote prescribed fr headaches? I never hearde of it, it seems stupid because it did the opposite for me.. also made me tired a lot.

I've found nothing good about this drug or any drug for that matter.. I found an article that ambien when given to vegetative patients it brings them out of it and they begin to function almost as normal again.. apparently it eases the mind from blocking any receptors due to prior shock.. any oter drugs out there that do something useful? I have not found. good luck.

[diane258]

I have been on 1000 mg of depakote for over 5 years as a mood stabalizer for my bi polar. It helps me alot with my moods and keep me in control of my anger. The only problem i have is that I am starting to get forgetful to do the small things that need to be accomplished. I wonder if my brain is shrinking? Has anyone tried a different mood stabilizer that has worked well for you?

[Kay V]

I have been on Depakote 13+ years. The spacing out looking for the right word is annoying and makes me look stupid at work. But the tremors are getting really bad. I am afraid to try another med, because reducing my dose kicks me into a manic state and puts my life at risk.
Does anyone know whether the tremors are reversable if you stop taking Depakote? Are these tremors actually tardive dyskensia, or something else?

[chris]

Bil wrote:

No medicine is perfect. people respond differently to meds as people differ genetically. A certain percentage of people have a genetic disorder called a Urea Cycle Disorder. In these people, if they take Depakote and or a number of other commonly prescribed medicines for everything, they will develop increased levels of ammonia in their blood. This sounds like what happened to janice's husband. Often people who take Depakote have other things going on...other diseases...getting older is a disease. People are too quick to blame a drug, while there are ways to see if the drug is actually causing the proble...stop the drug under the physician's supervision is one way. Depakote is a lifesaving drug for far more people thatn have been hurt by it. The company that sells it is first rate as a global citizen. I hope that God blesses you all.

shut you monkey if you read about these drugs you would say otherwise beside the scientists who tests these drugs have admitted the FDA is corrupt and only cares about money you are ignorant like my brother and he is a yale university your both dumb molded monkeys I took this drug and almost died on it!!!!!!!!!! people like you ruin peoples lives with bad advice read people read don't listen to such a moron!!!

[Margaret]

Suzie wrote:

yes, indeed i do.
http://adhocinfinitum.livejournal.com
all the info's in there, you've gotta weed through it cause i took this junk as a child and now i can't write coherently. blah!

Thank you Suzie, I hate that I took that drug for so long without serious questioning.

[Jeff]

tomas714 wrote:

<quoted text>
My dad has been on Depakote for about 6 mounths now and today the nursing home called me and said they think he had a stroke but they dont know.They said he is unresponeive and can tall and his right side seems week I told them to send himn to the ER and they did i call and ask the ER DR to check his levels and they are going to do that .I just found out they incresed his does form 750mg to 1000 on the 6th oh this mounth hummm sound strange .But will keep ya posted

Get rid of it and your Doctor before he stands before God.

[Jeff]

Depokote is a Killer sooner or later. Don't take it.

[Confused]

janice ardt wrote:

my husband was put on depakote 250mg 3x day i noticed he started losing his memory and weird things were happening. about 2 months after being on it he began to hallucinate thinking he was somewhere he wasn't and talking to people that was not there. I woke up in the middle of the night to find him gone he was found by police 100 yards from our home unresponsive. They had to give him narcan to jump start his heart, When i saw him in tthe hospital it was like talking to a brain injured person. He almost died from this medication.

That's alot of depakote in a 24 hr period! While on depakote the dr. is suppose 2 be doing blood draws 2 check the levels in your system to prevent these types of things from happening. People are to quick 2 prescribe this drug & doesn't sound like they r being very responsible with it either!

[comingtoseeclear ly]

Mike takes depakote huh? How about the rest of you? It would certainly explain alot! LMAO

[Janice]

I really liked your comments on depakote. I have a 10 yr old daughter who has been on depakote for about a year and all has been for the worst the last few months it seems. She has a "glazed" look about her and don't care for her surroundings at all. It made her withdraw from everything including school. I pulled her from public school because she couldn't deal with people anymore. I know this is from Depakote. Her father and I divorced a year ago and she got depressed. She was referred to a psychiatrist. He automatically labeled her as bipolar and prescribed her Depakote. She is not herself. I talked with a few people who said to get her off the meds right away beacuase it can cause brain damage and sterility in young girls. We are American Indian and I was told there is no such thing as bipolar disorder in our culture. I would like more advise I especially liked Suzie b's comments.

[puzzled husband]

JPB wrote:

Has anyone experienced or heard of anyone getting nerve damage from taking Depakote? My father was on Depakote (for headaches) for a year starting in June 05. Shortly after starting the medicine, he complained about weak legs and tightening of his skin. By the fall he had a strange gait, tire and weak legs, muscle aches. By Jan. he was limping even more and his right foot was dragging, by June he could barely walk, he now must use a walker. It seems he now has periferal neuropathy and the doctors don't know what is causing it. He was also taking Lexapro but not during the entire time he was taking Depakote. I feel Depakote has caused this problem with his legs and no one will seem to listen and the doctors won't admit to anything.

My wife had precisely the same experience. She was prescribed 1,500 mg Depakote daily. Even though she had Depakote levels in her blood far in excess of the normal range, and ammonia levels off the charts, the neurologist added 50 mg Lamotrigine. Within a couple of weeks she experienced weak legs, balance problems, a strange gait along with "footdrop," somnolence, and a parkinsonian shake of the arms. When the medicines were discontinued, the somnolence and parkinsonian symptoms in the arms abated, but the motion disorder in the right leg got worse and worse, as did balance problems. Within four to five months, she lost the ability to walk entirely without a walker. With a walker, she still has severe bradykinesia. The neurologists strenuously denied that Depakote and Lamictal poisoning could have these permanent effects on gait and balance, but despite many tests could give no other explanation. These are not listed as possible side-effect risks on the Depakote website. Has anyone else observed this phenomenon? Has anyone heard of a possible antidote?