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Epilepsy Drug Depakote Linked to Toddlers' Mental Deficits

Recent study results indicate that children exposed to the epilepsy drug Depakote prenatally scored significantly lower on IQ tests—by seven to eight points—compared to children whose mothers took one of three other epilepsy drugs while pregnant.

The study findings also indicated that expectant mothers who took Depakote had a significantly higher risk of having a child with mental retardation.

Dr. Kimford J. Meador of the University of Florida, the lead author of the study, contended that these results comprise “…compelling evidence that [Depakote] should not be used as a first-line choice for treatment in pregnant women.”

The Research

Meador and his team followed 185 children born to mothers with epilepsy who took Depakote, Tegretol, Lamictal, or Dilantin while pregnant. The researchers examined the children at age two with standard IQ tests, controlling for their mothers’ IQ scores, and found that the toddlers who had been exposed to Depakote were more than twice as likely to have IQ scores in the numerical range considered mental retardation.

The authors plan to continue the study, tracking the same children through age six, since IQ data obtained from two-year-old children are not considered completely reliable. However, these preliminary results are in accord with several other recent studies that found Depakote more likely than other epilepsy and anti-convulsant medications to increase the risks of birth defects and mental deficits.

Approximately 24 million women in the United States take an anti-convulsant drug in a given year, for problems such as epilepsy, migraine headaches, and bipolar disorder. The results of the IQ study were presented on May 3, 2007 at a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.

(Source: New York Times)

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