Birth defects question?

Question

Does anyone know what the birth defects caused by Depakote are? My mother has epilepsy and took depakote everyday when she was pregnant with me.

I'm asking because I was thinking maybe it could POSSIBLY cause the child to be born with a sort of reverse epilepsy (I know how crazy that sounds, but you never know), allowing them to create controlled seizures. If THAT's possible, I think maybe that has happened to me.

On a related note, my mom thinks the depakote is the reason I have Asperger's Syndrome (in case you didn't know, it's a very mild form of autism).

Answer 1

I did a superficial Yahoo search and didn't find any association between valproic acid (Depakote) and Asperger syndrome. A previous responder enumerated the effects of fetal valproate syndrome that occasionally results in infants born of mothers who take depakote during early pregnancy.

Try http://www.rarediseases.org/search/rdblist.html

Answer 2

Specific birth defects linked to Depakote include poor growth, small head, developmental delay, and several distinctive facial characteristics, such as a short and broad nose, small teeth, flattened midface area, and a thin upper and thick lower lip.

A more serious effect is increased risk of spina bifida, a birth defect in which the spinal column does not close completely, leading to a lesion on the newborn's back and loss of feeling from the point of the lesion down.

While the incidence of birth defects in babies exposed to Depakote is higher than for other antiepileptics, it doesn't mean that you were affected adversely.

Answer 3

small head or body size;
malformations that would have medical, surgical or cosmetic importance (including spina bifida, cleft palate, cardiovascular defects and others); and
hypoplasia of the mid-face (flattened face) and fingers (inadequate development).

Answer 4

I just did a search for that drug and it took me to a site called drugs.com I would just do a search for that drug in google to see what info pops up in addition to looking at Drugs.com