@A MyParkinsonsTeam Member, does the doctor know about the primadone and Depakote? I know primadone can eventually cause a tremor, although I'm not sure of the mechanism; however, Depakote is a dopamine inhibitor, and it absolutely does cause a tremor for that reason. In essence, it can cause drug-induced parkinsonism. Depending on when Depakote was stopped, the tremor may improve or even go away. I was on both Depakote and primadone. The primadone was for my tremor but it stopped working. Eventually I was taken off Depakote and my tremor improved so the doctor wanted to call the tremor drug-induced parkinsonism. I told him repeatedly that I had the tremor for many years before I took a medication which would cause a tremor. Once he got that through his head he was able to see better what was going on. Not knowing what kind of epilepsy you're dealing with it would be hard to tell you what, if anything, you should do differently, but talking to the doctor about what effects the Depakote and the primadone might have long term might be helpful. In my own experience neither was helpful in regards to my tremor. I now take Keppra and I have no side effects with it. I don't know if this is helpful at all, but if nothing else, the Depakote is what would concern me the most. It may or may not depend on how long he took it, but it may be helpful to explore what effects it may have had, and what effects primadone may have.
Hugs,
Teresa

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A MyParki...

My son has not had a seizure in 28 years, take primadone now, first was on Depakote. His first grand mal seizure happened during the night at the age of 20, police came, they thought he overdosed. Fought the nocturnal seizures and finally found the right medication for him.
Was diagnosed in October 2018, I suspected something like this for a while,
his aunt had it and I believe my mother in law had some kind of pd, I always remember her tremor and she began to have hallucinations etc. I believe my son might have inherited this? I do have not have any proof.
Everybody have a great day and live one day the time with optimism.
Frauke

Thank you for your answer. It is useful and enlightening.
Peter

That is a VERY interesting question for me. First of all, there is a DEFINITE link between epilepsy and any type of mood disorder, including bipolar disorder, both of which I have, and both a neurologist and a neurologist/psychiatrist have told me is verified. The question is really whether PD is connected. My current neurologist has told me I may have some drug-induced parkinsonism along with the rest of my list of things. If your son is on DepKote (valproic acid) he may have drug induced parkinsonism, and there may be others, I don't know. But because the brain is affected by all 3, it makes sense they might all be connected. I have not found a definitive answer yet, but writing to the epilepsy foundation, and someone who knows a lot about bipolar disease might get answer. And if no one has ever done research on it, perhaps the question could get them looking.
Hugs,
Teresa

Thank you Debbie. It have had several replicas and it seems that there appears to be a common link.