Hi Ladybird,

The medications work differently for different people, so this is just our
experience...

My son began having seizures at age 8 also.  His were not confirmed as
temporal lobe until 5th grade.  He was on Depakote (similar to Depakene) for
about 2 years. He never had a generalized tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizure
during that time, except for the time my mother let him go 3 days without
it. However, we discovered later that what we thought were behavior problems
and ADHD were multiple partial seizures that the Depakote seemed to have no
effect on.  Also, he developed some psychotic symptoms, including bizarre
delusions and behaviors, as well as a severe tremor in his hands.

We've since been on Trileptal, Keppra, Keppra+Lamictal, and now
Keppra+Topamax. I'll be starting another thread to ask about some issues
with that.

Good luck with your daughter. Have you visited epilepsy.com?  There are
several forums specific to parenting, childhood issues, etc.

Holly