Pregnancy: Sodium Valproate

(asked on 19th April 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of the number of pregnant women prescribed sodium valproate in the latest period for which figures are available.


Answered by
Maria Caulfield Portrait
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This question was answered on 27th April 2022

The latest available data from 2019/20 shows that 81 women on the Medicines and Pregnancy Anti-Epileptics Registry were prescribed valproate during their pregnancy. This represents a decrease of almost 15% from 2018/19, where 95 women were prescribed sodium valproate during their pregnancy.

Women should not be prescribed valproate without a Pregnancy Prevention Programme (PPP) in place. The Registry allows us to monitor implementation of and adherence to the PPP and understand changes in the use of valproate and the impact on women and their children.

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