DEPAKOTE ER 250 mg

jrowley · Post by **jrowley** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:13 pm

It's Jan #2

I was wondering if anyone has taken this before for their rls. This will be my fourth med since Jan. and they can't seem to find something my body can tolerate. I started with mirapex and that made things worse and kept me up all night, so they then put me on klonopin and that made me so tired i couldnt stay awake and the pain got worse, then back to mirapex only higher doses which did the same as the first time lots of pain and awake all night, then to neurontin and it did absolutely nothing for my jerking and cause a horrible headache, and now depakote. I haven't started it yet just got them today but I see in the warnings it can cause panceritis so I am scared to take it. My mom has pancreitis and is now a diabetic from it and her father (my grandpa) died from pancreatic cancer. I have a call into my doctor to see what she thinks with my family history and wheter or not this drug would be such a good idea for me. I am so frustrated right now that nothing is working I just want to scream .

On top of it all on Thur the 16th I have to go in for a laparoscopy so they see if I have endometreosis or any other problems before giving me a hystorectemy and bladder lift. That is a whole nother issue on it's own. I have a great aunt that had female cancer, great grandma that had a noncancerous tumor on her ovarie, and my sister had a cyst on her ovarie, and her daughter has endo, my mom also had a hystorectemy too but I am unsure what for.

I am so sick of all this I sometime have the most difficult time crawling out of bed.

Well anyway if anyone has any input about this drug I would appreciate it.

Jan

Post by **ViewsAskew** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 10:45 pm

Jan, no expert here, but I don't think this is a standard RLS drug. It's an anticonvulsant I think, like Neurontin, but Keppra and Gabitril are the other ones I see listed as helping RLS (and Topamax), but don't think I've seen depakote. Did you Google search on its name with RLS and see what comes up? Maybe you'll find out something new and can let us know. Hope it works.

Ann

jrowley · Post by **jrowley** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 11:18 am

No Ann it is one of the drugs commonly given to ppl with rls according to the southern california web site. I was just wondering if anyone has had it prescribed and if they had any problems with it? Its a epilepsy medication like klonopin and is given quit a bit for that reason. It's probably not prescribed a lot as it can cause liver disease and pancreitis. But thanks anyway Ann

Post by **ViewsAskew** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 4:03 pm

I am so grateful for that site! I just looked to see what it said since I didn't remember anyone using depakote - I noticed that it said it only had sporadic success, though. You tried one other anti-seizure already and it didn't work and one DA (Mirapex). The other common DA, Requip also tends to cause insomnia so that probably wouldn't work. And I think you said you tried one benxo, klonopin. I think on Dr B's site he says there are better choices for benzos that don't cause the sleepiness the next day. What about opioids? Can you take those? It's one class that also helps pain. Just asking because I'd be concerned about taking a drug that doesn't have a great success record and can cause other problems if you haven't tried other drugs that are less likely to cause as many problems and are more proven to work with RLS. Many people with pain and RLS seem to take more the one drug, I've noticed from reading posts. It might be that there is no 'one' drug that will help everything. Good luck. I'll be interested to hear how the depakote works.

Ann