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Depakote Essay

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Can Depakote, An Antipsychotic Drug with a Bad Rap Change a Teenager’s Life?
Help! The emergency 911 call goes “My child is having one of his psychotic episodes and I don’t know what to do!” A mother’s plea for help as she watches her teenage son’s manic episodes unfold; what is a mother to do? Since then, the teenager has been prescribed several antipsychotic drugs such as Aripiprazole (Abilify), thereafter, Risperidone (Risperdal) and a sleuth of others, but none curtails or controls his mood disorder until he is prescribed Depakote. Confused and perplexed, Depakote is an anti-seizure and an anti-psychotic drug that works by increasing the amount of a special neurotransmitter in the brain (drugwatch.com, nd).
Psychotic episodes stream …show more content…

Isolation
5. Poor coping strategies and problems adjusting to life stresses
Another name for Depakote which is typically known for is divalproex sodium and valproic acid. These two medications are used to treat a variety of seizures and mood disorders, as well as a preventative for migraines. The downside is that the side effect to this antipsychotic drug is linked to suicide, liver toxicity, pancreatitis and a variety of birth defects, including cardiovascular malformations, neural tube defects and facial deformities (drugwatch.com, nd).
Background
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Depakote in 1983 for epilepsy treatment, in 1995 for bipolar disorder, and in 1996 for the prevention of migraine headaches. Sold by Abbott Laboratories, the drug comes in a variety of forms: Depacon injections (valproate sodium), Depakote, Depakote CP and Depakote ER (divalproex sodium) and Depakene and Stavzor (valproic acid). The liquid form, Depacon, is less popular as it tends to make users nauseous (drugwatch.com, nd).
Depakote has been approved for use in adults and children 10 and older for seizure treatment and age 16 and older for migraine prevention. However, it is not approved to treat bipolar conditions in children, despite that it has been known to be used in this off-label manner. In 2008, the FDA approved the first generic version of Depakote. In recent years, Abbott Laboratories has faced federal charges of illegal marketing of Depakote to

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