Depakine, dangerous for the intellectual capacities of the child

Last November, the Orleans Court of Appeal ordered the Sanofi laboratory to pay 3 million euros in compensation to a family. The woman had been taking Depakine since she was a child and was not given any information about the potential dangers of the treatment when she became pregnant. Her daughter now has severe physical deformities.

Depakine is an anti-epileptic, responsible for poorer school performance in children. It contains sodium valproate, a substance which can cause physical malformations in children if it is ingested during pregnancy, the risk of delay intellectual is therefore high.

A new study led by Danish researchers and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, attests to the existence of a link between taking Depakine during pregnancy and the child’s intellectual performance over the long term.

Valproate, more dangerous than other anti-epileptics

1,865 children were exposed to various anti-epileptics during pregnancy: valproate, phenobarbital, oxcarbazepine, lamotrigine, clonazepam or carbamazepine and children, whose mothers did not take any treatment of this type. Those exposed to valproate, and therefore to Depakine, during their mother’s pregnancy, had poorer results in school tests. These were carried out over the period from primary to the beginning of middle school.

For children exposed to clonazepam, the success rates were also poorer than those of children who were not exposed to any anti-epileptic drugs during pregnancy. However, they were still better than the results of children on valproate. For other anti-epileptics, no difference in academic success was observed, compared to children who had never been exposed to either of these substances.

According to a report published by the National Medicines Safety Agency (Ansm) and Health Insurance last April, between 2,150 and 4,100 children are believed to be victims of malformations because of Depakine.