Anyone taking this medication should get their prescription refilled as soon as possible.
The conditions for prescribing and dispensing certain medications will change. These treatments, which affect many patients in France, pose significant risks to their unborn children. These include medications for epilepsy and migraines (based on valproate and its derivatives, carbamazepine, or topiramate).
For patients who were already being treated before January 6, 2025, and whose treatment with valproate and its derivatives was prescribed by a general practitioner, they will need a new prescription from June 30. The medications in question must be prescribed by a doctor specializing in neurology, psychiatry, or pediatrics.
To obtain their treatment in a pharmacy, patients will therefore need this new prescription from a specialist, but that's not all. For treatments based on valproate and its derivatives (as well as carbamazepine or topiramate for women), they will also need a "shared information certificate" co-signed by themselves and the prescribing physician. The same rules apply to new patients since January 6.
These treatments, like Depakine, are indeed known for the risks they pose to unborn children. Valproate, for example, taken by pregnant women and both parents before conception, "exposes the unborn child to a high risk of neurodevelopmental disorders (up to 30 to 40% of cases).
It also causes birth defects," recalls the Health Insurance . There are also risks of malformations and neurodevelopmental disorders for the unborn children of pregnant women who take treatment with carbamazepine or topimarate.
L'Internaute
