Stoll A L, Banov M, Kolbrener M, Mayer P V, Tohen M, Strakowski S M, Castillo J, Suppes T, Cohen B M
Psychopharmacology Unit, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.
J Clin Psychopharmacol. 1994 Oct;14(5):311-3.
The hypothesis that neurologic factors influence the response to valproate (divalproex sodium) in bipolar and schizoaffective disorders was tested. In 115 predominantly lithium-refractory inpatients, neurologic findings were recorded, and blind raters assessed valproate response from the medical record. Patients with a seizure history were much more likely to have a robust response to valproate (70%), when compared with patients without such history (34.6%). History of head injury and abnormal electroencephalographic findings also tended to be more common in those patients with good response. Overall, the group of patients with any neurologic abnormality exhibited a significantly higher rate of good response to valproate (43.6%) than did the neurologically normal group (24.3%). Bipolar or schizoaffective patients with abnormal neurologic features may represent a distinct subtype of illness and appear to be good candidates for valproate therapy.
