Valproate During Pregnancy Linked to Autism
Wednesday December 3, 2008
According to ScienceDaily, the epilepsy medication valproate, when taken during pregnancy, has been linked to autism. According to the article:
The children whose mothers were given valproate during pregnancy were seven times more likely to develop autism compared to children whose mothers did not take an epilepsy drug while pregnant. This risk was not seen with the other epilepsy drugs. None of the children in the study had any known family history of autism.While the article goes on to say that more study is needed, it does seem clear that moms-to-be taking valproate should ask their doctors for alternative options for controlling epileptic symptoms.
Comments
Hi everyone,
A child neurologist has another reason why autism appears to be on the rise. He said over diagnosis. Please check out my Web site at www.autismrising.com. Thanks!
I have to commend Sciencedaily on its use of the word “May”, because you wouldn’t want to alarm anyone, but lets make this math real clear.
5 kids with autism born to 64 mothers on valproate in the study
Aka, a ratio of 1:13
and if the usual 4:1 boy:girl autism ratio held -
1:8 boys born to mothers on valproate would develop autism
That “may” a problem worth banning a product for.
Interesting that valproate is injected.