Tapering

August 25, 2026··

Hi guys, I’m new here. I’ve been struggling really bad with migraines and 10 days ago. I was at the emergency room and they put me on 750 mg of Depakote but I’m noticing I have a very dry mouth, constipation, bloating, and it makes me really drowsy and hard to work throughout the day. They have me taking 253 times a day and I’m only 130 pounds so I wanted to drop down to 500 mg. Curious if I can just stop taking 250 mg altogether or if I need to go down 100 at a time only been on a 10 days. . Thank you

2 Replies

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BasedStaffAug 26

Community AnchorEffexor

Hey! I would avoid cutting out one pill. Rather decreasing each dose. You can certainly try, valproate has a halflife of 9-16 hrs so it may be ok, but the best practices way is to decrease each dose so that theres an even amount of the med in your blood stream. 10% cuts are the best practices way, however not everyone needs to do so. Something to think abount and see how you feel

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Stabilizing1d ago

WelcomerLatuda · holding

Hey @Carissa recommend doing it under a clinician’s guidance especially because I noticed you are on lamictal as well and these two medication interact. In addition, the depakote pills can’t be cut in half for dosing purposes but there are 125mg tablets if it’s advised to do smaller tapers.

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