What is valproate used for?
Valproate is licensed and officially approved to help treat the symptoms of: • Bipolar mania or hypomania • Epilepsy Valproate can also sometimes be used to help the symptoms of: • Bipolar mood disorder • Bipolar depression • Depression • Epilepsy • Psychiatric emergency There are other treatments for the conditions above. The main ones are included in the section on each of the conditions above. 10.10 Hide this answer • How does valproate work? It is not entirely clear exactly how valproate works (both as a mood stabiliser and as an anticonvulsant) as it does several things in the brain. Firstly, there is a chemical messenger (or “neurotransmitter”) in the brain called GABA, which is “inhibitory” on the brain i.e. it calms the brain down. Once it has worked there are other chemicals (or “enzymes”) in the brain which are there to break GABA down so that it can no longer work. In people with normal levels of GABA this prevents there being too much GABA. In some people it is thought that
