There is an increased incidence of major and minor congenital abnormalities in infants born to epileptic mothers (6 to 7% compared with 2 to 3% in the general population).' Factors which may contribute to this include the occurrence of seizures leading to periods of hypoxia during pregnancy, an inherited predisposition to malformations owing to intrinsic maternal factors, and the teratogenic ef...

A selective ultraperformance liquid chromatographic (UPLC) method for the determination of magnesium valproate and its process related impurities has been developed. The method includes reversed-phase Acquity BEH C18 column with 100 mm × 2.1 mm i.d. and 1.7 µ particle size. The mobile phase consists of acetonitrile and 5 mM ammonium dihydrogen orthophosphate with pH = 3.0 at 45 : 55 isocratic e...

BACKGROUND Hyperammonemia is known to cause neuronal injury, and can result from valproic acid exposure. Prompt reduction of elevated ammonia levels may prevent permanent neurological injury. We report a case of fatal hyperammonemic brain injury in a woman exposed to valproic acid. CASE A 38-year-old woman with schizoaffective disorder and recent increase in valproic acid dosage presented wit...

Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are increasingly used for the treatment of several non-epileptic neurological conditions and psychiatric disorders. Most of the information available on the use of these agents in clinical disorders outside epilepsy is from case series, uncontrolled studies or small randomised clinical trials, and their apparent efficacy requires confirmation through well designed, la...

OBJECTIVE To assess the effects of sodium valproate on intratesticular testosterone and lactic dehydrogenase level in rats. METHODS Male Wistar rats (12 weeks old) were treated with sodium valproate and sacrificed at the end of the 2(nd), 4(th), 5(th), 7(th), 10(th) and 15(th) week, after the last exposure to sodium valproate. The testes were removed, weighed and processed for biochemical ana...

BACKGROUND Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder with onset early in adulthood. Disrupted-In-Schizophrenia-1 (DISC1) is a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. Disc1-L100P mutant mice show behaviors relevant to schizophrenia at 12 weeks, but not at 8 weeks of age, and may be useful for investigating the onset of schizophrenia in early adulthood. METHO...

PURPOSE Evaluation of the efficacy of add-on valproate (VPA) or primidone (PRM) in patients with partial epilepsy unresponsive to carbamazepine (CBZ). METHODS The trial was prospective and open. Patients, aged 8-58 years, with partial epilepsy who did not become seizure free on CBZ were randomized to either VPA add-on or PRM add-on. The baseline period and the evaluation period were both 3 mo...

A series of N-[(4-arylpiperazin-1-yl)-alkyl]-2-azaspiro[4.5]decane-1,3-dione derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their anticonvulsant and neurotoxic properties. The main modifications to that series of compounds consisted in the introduction of an aromatic area to the cyclohexane ring as a flexible fragment with conformational freedom (1a-h), or as a rigidified skeleton (2a-h). Excep...

Background: Huntington’s Disease (HD) is characterized by choreatic movements. Chorea is treated with antidopaminergic neuroleptics like tiaprid and tetrabenazine. Especially in patients with signs of parkinsonism antidopaminergic medication often leads to a worsening of symptoms. In earlier studies valproic acid showed no beneficial effect on involuntary movements. Myoclonus is rare in HD and ...