IQ low in toddlers whose mothers took valproate

By Gene Emery

BOSTON (Reuters) - Children born to women who took the epilepsy drug valproate while pregnant had lower IQs at least up to age 3 than the children of women who took rival epilepsy drugs, researchers reported on Wednesday.

The findings add to evidence that the pill is harmful to unborn children. It is sold by Sanofi-Aventis as Epilim and as Depakine in the United States by Abbott Laboratories.

"This finding supports a recommendation that valproate not be used as a first-choice drug in women of childbearing potential," Kimford Meador of Emory University in Atlanta and colleagues wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Valproate does not just cause IQ problems. Evidence has been around for years that prenatal exposure can cause major congenital malformations in one in 10 children and British researchers found in December that it raised the risk of autism.

Yet it is still widely prescribed for epilepsy, migraines, bipolar disorder and other conditions, mostly by general practitioners who have not heard of its dangers, Meador said in a telephone interview.

"You have to wonder why so much of it is being written for women with epilepsy after all this time or, for that matter, for anything. I suspect it's even worse for headache or bipolar, because that's where most of the scripts are for this drug," Meador said.

But for women who might become pregnant, simply halting the drug can be dangerous, causing more seizures, which can harm the fetus. And in roughly 5 percent of epilepsy patients, valproate, also known as valproic acid, is the only drug that works well.

"So I think the simple message is, try something else first," said Meador.