My 8 year old nephew is having lyme seizures. He's getting a picc line today and the neurologist (non-LLMD) want's to put him on depakote.
The family is nervous about negative depakote side effects. Can anyone share their experiences? Thank you.
Posted by jkmom (Member # 14004) on :
My daughter took Depakote beginning in July until recently. She took it to help with raging and to hopefully help with her 24/7 headache.
We thought that her raging was bart related and flaring due to a herx from rifampin. The Depakote was to help her tolerate the herxing.
She started the Rifampin in July and the Depakote a little later. From that time, her headache was worse until probably November. We took her off the Rifampin at the beginning of Oct.
During this time, we noticed she had a tremor, dilated pupils, and a fast heartrate and possible POTS. Since she isn't raging or taking the rifampin, and it didn't help her head, we decided to take her off the Depakote. So far, we haven't noticed a change in anything. She's been all the way off for at least a week, maybe longer.
I can't say what the Depakote did except it did seem to help her mood stability when she was on the rifampin. Did it (or another med or the Lyme/bart) cause the tremor and other problems, I can't say.
If it helps, it was a LL psychiatrist that put her on the Depakote. Her liver tests were fine when she was on it.