Q:  Ejaculatory Dysfunction w/Trileptal & Depakote?

After a life time of destroying my self and the emotions of those around me through hyper-sexuality, extreem mood swings, ect. I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.  The Psych I am seeing has me on two meds Trileptal and Depakote. I have done my research on them and am able to identify most of the side effects I am experiancing from the information available.  I am, however, experiancing one that is not listed and did not exist prior to me starting the meds.  Have you heard of or is there any published findings on ejaculatory disfunction?  I have noticed an inability to ejaculate aproximately 70% of the time.  Those that do occure take an extended period of time to acheave.  The meds have given me some control of my emotions and such so I guess it is a good trade, but is this to your knowledge a normal side effect?

 

Dear Mr. G' -- 
Not common, though it's been described; could be a function of the combination of the two, or either alone (though the latter, again, is not common).  I agree with the importance of viewing this as a trade-off, as without the med's many relationships won't bear the symptoms, making the side effect issue moot, perhaps.  However, after you've had an extended period of stability to use as a baseline, you could ask your doc' about trying to move things around very slowly and carefully hunting for a combination of medications that might not do this.   (that was pretty obvious, I guess...)

Dr. Phelps