Posted by bleauberry on November 10, 2007, at 19:04:59
In reply to Valerian as a mood stabilizer (like Depakote?), posted by daorlando on November 9, 2007, at 6:10:31
I have used valerian on an as needed basis, never more than one night at a time. I was on depakote for a couple months. Now that you mention it, I can say valerian and depakote do feel quite similar, with the exception that for me valerian works much faster. Depakote actually increased my nervousness and insomnia for a week or so before calming things down. Valerian for me does in about 2 hours what it takes depakote to do in a week.
I have never had a bad experience with valerian, unlike probably a hundred other herbs or supplements I have had bad experiences with. It makes me wonder why I haven't relied on it more than I have. I think I'm just gunshy of anything dealing with the gaba/benzo circuits, ever since having to wean off xanax and zyprexa.
If they ever prove more conclusively that valerian and depakote have similarities, it would not surprise me.
Along the same lines, I saw in an abstract at pubmed that kava kava is similar to lamictal in many ways. They have disctinct differences of course, but they said the herb most like lamictal was kava kava.
poster:bleauberry
thread:794055
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20071031/msgs/794320.html