Posted by Ritch on February 7, 2003, at 10:19:33
In reply to Mitch/Ritch, posted by dreamerz on February 6, 2003, at 22:35:02
> Hello sweetypie..
> I have problem with Depakote...
> Makes my legs twitch in bed actually just had one now..also I'm putting on weight too fast--actually worried that I may get eating disorder-like starve myself.
> So I guess I should consider topamax--is this useful for rapid and mixed mood states..and is Tripital similar but with less side effects.
> All web sites have conflicting veiws so ...I've come for expert help :-).
I haven't been on Trileptal long enough to really tell if it will work as well as Depakote (for the positive symptoms of hypomania/temper, etc.). It *does* seem to have lengthened my mood cycles a little bit (and that hasn't happened before that I can see). I stopped it for a few days a ways back and I did get a hypomanic rebound from doing that which lasted several days (despite being on a little Depakote along with it at that time). You were taking Tegretol before, weren't you? Did it work well for you? You should get a similar response to the Trileptal then. I guess what I am saying is that I wouldn't expect it to be any more effective than Tegretol. So...if you switched from Tegretol to Depakote because Teg wasn't working good enough, you probably are going to have worsened problems if you switch back to something like it. I haven't noticed any weight gain with the Trileptal at all. In fact, I am starting to lose some weight from the Depakote switch to it. When I was on Topamax+Neurontin a couple of years ago I was just way tooooo sleeeeepy. Some folks have reported it to have induced mania (as Lamictal has done). Not here. I was zonked all morning long-hello? what's my name?? It was a great sleeper, though. It just took too much coffee in the morning to get going (like Remeron did). Since you have had some uh, trouble, uh, sleeeeping too much, I would ask your doctor about possibly cross-tapering the Depakote onto Trileptal and see what they say (since you have tried Teg with some success in the past). Trileptal seems to be a little activating and somewhat anxiety-provoking when I started it-but it took a couple of weeks to settle down. You don't want to stop the Depakote cold, trust me! There can be a nasty withdrawal syndrome from it-it usually lasts about a week or so for me. goodluck--Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:139887
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030204/msgs/139961.html