The Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning against the use of migraine drug valproate sodium in pregnant women as they pose a risk to the child's IQ, reports Los Angeles Times.
Pregnant women often experience migraine headaches, but in light of new evidence, FDA has issued a warning against the use of migraine drugs containing valproate sodium during pregnancy as they result in decreased IQ scores in children in comparison to those mothers who take alternate antiepileptics. Volproate drugs are used to relieve migrane headaches, control epileptic seizure and in the treatment of bipolar disorder.
"Valproate medications should never be used in pregnant women for the prevention of migraine headaches because we have even more data now that show the risk for the children outweighs any treatment benefits for this use," said Dr. Russell Katz of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
Volproate containing drugs include Abbott Laboratories' Depacon, Depakote, Depakote CP, Depakote ER and Depakene, and Noven Therapeutics LLC's Stavzor and their generics, according to Reuters. These medications carry a boxed warning about the risks of birth defects. Previous study has also linked the consumption of these drugs during pregnancy to a greater risk of autism in children.
Despite the boxed instructions, FDA's warning stresses on the need to avoid the use of these medications during pregnancy as they significantly decrease the child's IQ score. Dr. Katz said the use of valproate medications should be the last resort in case other medication for pregnant women's epilepsy or bipolar disorder is proven ineffective.
Based on the latest study, children of mothers who took valproate drugs during pregnancy scored significantly lower on IQ compared to those children who were exposed to other anti-seizure drugs. The study showed that 6-year old children born to mothers who took valproate drugs scored an average 8 to 10 points lower than those who did not rely on valproate medications.
