Valproic acid in migraine prophylaxis of young patients. Three new reports

Several clinical studies report the efficacy of valproic acid in migraine prophylaxis of adult patients and its well tolerability. In childhood and adolescent patients its use is usually restricted to epilepsy and very few cases have been reported in literature on the use of valproic acid for "juvenile migraine". We describe three pediatric patients fulfilling the International Headache Society (IHS) criteria for migraine with and without aura treated with low dose of sodium valproate (10 mg/Kg/die) for six months. They had previously undergone other migraine preventive treatment unsuccessfully. We obtained a good response in all cases: in only one subject, prophylactic treatment was stopped because of weight gain, as adverse effect. In conclusion, in accord with other authors, we suggest that valproic acid may be helpful in the prophylaxis migraine in pediatric age.