As a doctor training in obstetrics and gynaecology, I read your article on the families affected by sodium valproate with interest and then dismay (The mothers fighting a scandal bigger than thalidomide: ‘We were told the medication was safe’, 22 February). Although it’s clearly tragic that these women weren’t effectively counselled on the potential dangers of their medication regime for their unborn children, it cannot be ignored that valproate can provide a life-saving or life-enabling treatment option for some patients living with epilepsy.
Media coverage that fails to recognise this risks doing further harm by only presenting one side of the story. Current guidelines state that valproate should never be the first-line treatment for women of child-bearing age, but it remains a very effective anti-epileptic drug, and in difficult cases it may present a safer alternative to polypharmacy (itself associated with an even higher risk of congenital malformations – 16.8 per 100, compared with 10.7 per 100 for valproate or 2.3 per 100 for the background population), or poor seizure control.
