Hi Pat,
My Megan was on Depakote starting at age ten until she was 17 and it did a fantastic job of controlling her JME tonic clonic seizures. She would have one or two seizures a year, some years no seizures, and when she did have a seizure it was usually because she missed medication AND had an additional trigger involved, such as lack of sleep. She had no problems with side effects from the Depakote.
When Megan was 17, she started seeing an adult neuro instead of the ped neuros she had prior to that. That particular doctor specialized in women with epilepsy. She wanted Megan off of Depakote due to all the potential longer term side effects. That started almost four years of the worst time Megan had with seizures. At first they weaned her off of Depakote and titered her onto the Lamictal. The lamictal never controlled her seizures completely and she also started having myclonics at that time. They played with the dose, getting her to the top end of the therapeutic window. Then she stopped taking another drug (not an AED) which had blocked absorption of the lamictal. Her lamictal levels went through the roof and she passed out on two separate occasions, falling face first on cement the first time and breaking off her front teeth the second time. At some point they added Keppra, and kept upping that dose until she was at the top for both drugs. The doctor had it in her head that Megan wasn't compliant about taking her meds, which simply wasn't true, so she wanted us to stay with the drugs Megan was on, although I talked to her about Megan's returning to depakote. It got to the point where Megan was having a seizure about every week to ten days. This was someone who had only had one or two seizures a year on her previous meds.
Well, thank goodness that doctor moved to Chicago to be closer to her ailing parents. We got a new doctor at the same medical college. We told him of our experiences, and he said that if Megan wasn't having problems with side effects, depakote was the drug of choice for JME. Later he added generic topamax to stop her myoclonics completely. She has now been seizure free for almost four months and has only had one seizure in the last six months, due to forgetting her meds and lack of sleep.
Your daughter's experience with depakote may be different, but I have been very happy with it whenever Megan has been taking it. One other thing. I was told that Depakote and lamictal don't mix well. Calrify that point with your neurologist. It may be that depakote blocks the uptake of lamictal, in which case they would have to increase her lamictal to get the same amount in her bloodstream.
My best wishes to you both,
Tammy
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