Prevalence of valproate prescriptions in women of childbearing age in certain regions of Russia.

Aim: The goal of this retrospective study was to analyze the proportion of women with epilepsy who had received valproate (VPA) prescriptions in certain regions of Russia in 2018.

Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was based on the IQVIA Russia longitudinal prescriptions (LRx) database and included all individuals with a documented epilepsy code (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision [ICD-10]: G.40) from 13 regions in Russia who had received at least one prescription of an antiepileptic drug (AED). The prevalence of VPA prescriptions in female patients with epilepsy aged 16-45 years was analyzed by age group and epilepsy diagnosis code. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to study the association between predefined variables and the probability of having received a VPA prescription.

Results: We found a total of 15,412 patients with epilepsy aged 16-45 who had received AED prescriptions in 2018 in the LRx database; 4488 (29.1%) of those patients were women. Of those, 64% had received at least one VPA prescription in 2018. The highest prevalence of VPA prescriptions was found in the age group 16-20 years (69%). This prevalence decreased with age. When compared with women aged 41-45 years, the 16-20-year-old age group was associated with a 1.6-fold increased probability of having receiving a VPA prescription (odds ratio [OR]: 1.60; p < 0.001), followed by the 21-25-year-old age group (OR: 1.46; p < 0.001). Nevertheless, the majority of women received VPA in low dosages (below 700 MG per day).

Conclusions: The prevalence of VPA prescriptions in women of childbearing age was quite high in Russia. The therapeutic doses were in line with international guidelines and had low teratogenic potential. Further research is needed to gain a better understanding of the reasons for prescribing VPA to women with epilepsy who are of childbearing age.