Anyone completed a successful Depakote weaning?

That is an idea I have not thought of lowering depakote and adding lamictol.. if you don’t mind me asking how much of the depakote is your son currently still using…my son is at 1000mg Er a day…

Trish

He was on 1000 mg twice a day of Depakote. Now after a 7 week process over the summer he is on 500mg Depakote twice a day and 100mg of lamictal/lamotragine twice a day.

I took a heavy duty dose of depakote twice a day as a migraine preventative for years and put on a lot of weight. My neurologist took me off cold turkey and I began having Myoclonic seizures (5 - 6 a minute every day once I started to tire) I’m on Keppra now, no side effects and doing great. And I lost 50 pounds without trying once I got off the depakote.

I hope that this message reaches you, even though the post is a bit old. I have successfully weaned off of Depakote in preparation for having my babies, as Depakote is known to cause birth defects. I had been on Depakote for about 20 years since my late teens, for very severe chronic and intractable migraine headaches. It took me about three months to go from 1000 mg a day of Depakote ER to zero. I was in constant communication with my doctor and it was a slow taper: 1000 to 750 to 500 to 250, then I think it was 250 every other day. She regularly prescribed me smaller and smaller doses to help with the taper. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was definitely bearable. I was surprised, because in my early 20s, I attempted to stop Depakote basically cold turkey by myself and the results were absolutely horrible: unbearable headaches, panic and crying constantly. I eagerly went back on it, and stayed on the drug for another 10+ years, even upping the dose at one or two points. The difference in my two experiences, apart from the taper, which is critical, is that I was in a very busy and stressful phase of my life (accelerated masters program) for my first attempt. For the second attempt, I was not working at all. I realize this is not possible for everyone (indeed it is no longer possible for me to not work) but I share this to say that as much as possible, you must dial down the stress of your life before attempting to taper off the drug. I have been completely Depakote free for eight years now, and I honestly hope I never have to go back on it, even though I must admit that it worked really well for me. I have found other long-term preventatives and much better acute treatment of migraines when I have them. I realize that this forum is primarily for seizures and epilepsy, and not migraine headaches, however, my experience of how to taper off of the drug might still help someone so I’m sharing it here in response to your post.