"i have been on carbamazepine for 17 years and find it keeps my mood stabilized and works best as an anti-manic.  it is not much help with depression.  i had tried lithium, depakote, and a few of the atypical antipsychotics prior to carbamazepine and the thing i loved about this drug is i did not gain weight on it, in fact after coming off depakote and on to this i lost 40 pounds.  so for me it is weight neutral.  i have heard others say otherwise...some gained, some lost, some stayed the same.  my serum sodium does run slightly low, and i am sometimes tired, but that is the mainstay with psychiatric drugs.  the initial breaking in phase was rough, about 3 months to adjust to the medication, but with the weight loss after depakote..."