Posted by WorryGirl on September 15, 2003, at 17:22:29
In reply to Depakote weight gain question, posted by bookgurl99 on September 13, 2003, at 11:22:18
I've been taking 1,000 mg of depakote a day for about a month now, up from the 500 mg initially prescribed. Because my body metabolizes this drug pretty quickly, I'm probably going to end up taking 1,250-1,500 mg a day eventually.
As a bulimic desperately trying to recover I was concerned about the potential weight gain with this drug. But my anxiety and depression and overwhelming sense of isolation was encompassing me to the point where I couldn't hold a normal conversation with anyone anymore, including my husband (in other words I was getting MUCH WORSE as time went by). So I decided it was worth a try.
On depakote I feel calmer and am not nearly as manic. I hold conversations now without people starting to give me the blank stare after a few minutes. There is some "laziness" I guess you could call it associated with taking this. I was having a hard time winding down at night and was suffering from the sleep deprivation. This helped with that tremendously. I do often feel sleepy during the day but as long as find a way to stay active (mentally or physically) I'm usually OK.
As for the weight gain and eating, I haven't gained weight and the only thing I can think of is that for me, I am not as fixated on food as I had been. I'm almost too lazy to bother fixing food for myself. I just feed kid stuff to the kids while I chomp on a carrot stick or an occasional pb&j sandwich.
A word of warning however; since you are taking this for migraines I don't know if this would even apply to you, but when I go out drinking with my husband (I usually have 4-8 drinks), I feel completely out of sorts for the next 2-3 days. This has nothing to do with a hangover - it really alters the effect the medication was supposed to have on me and I am weepy, anxious, irksome and loathsome, and basically, a terror.
Good luck and I hope you migraines go away on this.
poster:WorryGirl
thread:259625
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030912/msgs/260375.html