Valproic Acid related metabolic syndrome in patients with epilepsy

Valproic acid (VPA) is an anticonvulsant and mood-stabilizing drug for the long-term treatment. It is established that VPA has number of side effects affecting metabolic and endocrine system, like weight gain, hyperinsulinemia, changes in sex hormones, dyslipidemia, hyperleptinemia and etc. But the data are not sufficient to judge if VPA treatment can induce metabolic syndrome. Our aim was to investigate metabolic syndrome frequency in VPA-treated (n=11) and CBZ-treated (n=13) patients with epilepsy and in drug-free healthy subjects (n=11). We diagnosed metabolic syndrome according to Adult Treatment Panel III criteria (ATP III). We took blood samples for analysing triglyceride, HDL cholesterol and fasting glucose. Waist circumference and blood pressure was measured as well. Our data revealed that metabolic syndrome is relatively frequent in VPA-treated patients group (45,5%) compared with CBZ group and controls (15.4% and 27.3% respectively) (p<0,5). BMI did not differ between study groups. According to our preliminary data VPA monotherapy increases the risk of metabolic syndrome in patients with epilepsy, but BMI did not differ between VPA monotherapy study group, CBZ monotherapy study group and controls.