Valproic Acid

Valproic acid (VPA) is an antiepileptic drug approved in 1978 by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of absence seizures. VPA is a simple eight-carbon branched-chain fatty acid, which is structurally unrelated to any other marketed drug (Fig. 1). In the United States, tablets are marketed as VPA, and syrup is marketed as the sodium salt of VPA (sodium valproate). Tablets of the sodium and magnesium salts of VPA and an amide form of VPA are marketed in some foreign countries.Mechanism of ActionVPA suppresses seizure activity in many animal models of epilepsy and . . .