BACKGROUND Off-label use of a drug not according to its regulatory labeling has become common in medicine, especially in the field of psychiatry. Mood stabilizers are intended to be used to attenuate mood fluctuations in bipolar disorder, but their use has spread to patients with schizophrenia, as it provides greater control of impulsivity and aggressiveness. Sodium valproate is one of the most...

The use of valproate has traditionally been held to be associated with a greater incidence of weight gain than that of other anticonvulsants. This paper presents an analysis of body weight data gathered during a randomized trial comparing valproate with carbamazepine in 260 children aged 4-15 years with newly-diagnosed epilepsy. There were more reports of weight gain as an adverse event in the ...

OBJECTIVE Anticonvulsants are used in clinical practice for the treatment of PTSD. However, a systematic investigation of their effects in the treatment of PTSD is currently lacking from the literature. Our aim is to review and appraise the evidence for the use of the anticonvulsant valproate for the treatment of PTSD. METHODS We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literatu...

OBJECTIVE Previous studies have suggested that oxidative stress may play a role in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder (BD). Moreover, recent studies indicate that lithium and valproate exert neuroprotective effects against oxidative stress. We studied the effects of the mood stabilizers lithium and valproate on amphetamine-induced oxidative stress in an animal model of mania. METHODS In ...

An unselected series is presented of 17 infants born to epileptic mothers and exposed to sodium valproate during pregnancy. Nine infants had minor abnormalities and of these infants five also had major malformations, described as the 'fetal valproate syndrome'. The most frequent malformation was congenital heart disease. Nine of the infants had manifestations of withdrawal, such as irritability...

Long-term usage of antiepileptic drugs (AED) may lead to changes in serum vitamin B12 (B12) levels. Studies show that after sodium valproate prescription in epileptic patients, B12 concentrations increased.1 On the other hand, in the normal population, serum levels of B12 decreases with age.2 In the case of B12 deficiency, various hematologic, neurologic, and psychiatric clinical findings may b...

AIMS The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of valproate (Depakine-Chrono) versus placebo for the treatment of acute alcohol hallucinosis. METHODS 10 days' randomized, double-blind, parallel study was conducted; 40 patients with an ICD-10 diagnosis of acute alcohol hallucinosis were randomized to valproate (Depakine-Chrono) 3000 mg/day (n = 20) or placebo (n = 20). The p...

We investigated the current perception threshold (CPT) of epileptic patients treated with valproate. The CPTs at frequencies of 5 Hz, 250 Hz and 2000 Hz in the control group of patients were 198.9 +/- 15.8, 62.0 +/- 18.9 and 35.3 +/- 15.8, respectively. The CPTs at 5 Hz, 250 Hz and 2000 Hz in the epileptic group of patients were 350.6 +/- 61.3, 338.6 +/- 64.3 and 193.2 +/- 21.1, respectively. T...

BACKGROUND Lithium has been reported in some, but not all, studies to be associated with reduced risks of suicide death or suicidal behavior. The objective of this nonrandomized cohort study was to examine whether lithium was associated with reduced risk of suicide death in comparison to the commonly-used alternative treatment, valproate. METHODS A propensity score-matched cohort study was co...

BACKGROUND More than half of all individuals with bipolar disorder have a substance abuse problem at some point in their lifetime. Patients with comorbid substance abuse disorders often are excluded from clinical trials. Thus, treatments targeting this high-risk clinical population are lacking. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of divalproex sodium (hereafter referred to as valproate) in dec...