Our 5 year old grandson had been taking it for about 6 months. I don't see a HUGE change in him but hubby says he does. He also takes Ritalin. We cut the small dose pill in half and give 1/2 in the morning and the other half at noon at school. With the combination of both, I think more to because of the Ritalin we are not having to do a behavior plan at school this year.
So by using both meds we have seen a huge change in his behavior at school. At home when he's not on Ritalin, it has an extremely short half life and is out of their system entirely in about 2-3 hours, he's still temperamental and tends to have rages if he is told no to something he really wants, like playing for hours on my smart phone.
When school is out and he gets his regular Ritalin he is more manageable even when told no. But as soon as the med is out of his system it seems he's back to normal.
Again, I haven't really seen a change with only the Depakote but hubby and a lot of others have noticed a change.
I can't possibly hurt to try it under the supervision of a Psychiatrist. They are the professionals when it comes to meds for behaviors and mental issues such as ADD/ADHD and OCD. I would NEVER listen to a pediatrician or any other form of Doc when it comes to a mental health issue. IF a Psychiatrist said to do something a certain way I would think about the proposed outcome of the action then probably decide to follow their instructions while watching closely to see what changes or side effects I noticed. Being award of all the possibilities is the smart way to go about doing any new med the Doc might want to try.
The Doc should have you go do blood work every few months at first then maybe less if the med shows no physical side effects. This is to make sure it is being processed by the body the right way and getting out of the system, not building up.
I hope it works well for you. Quite a few people have their kids on it and say it really works well for them.