FDA Approves New Suicidality Warning For Epilepsy, Bipolar Meds: Depakote, Lamictal

Via Furious Seasons mental health news blog: , authored by journalist Philip Dawdy

"The FDA today announced that it has finally approved new warning language for anti-epileptic drugs (anti-seizure drugs, so called mood stabilizers) such as Depakote and Lamictal to reflect suicidality risk. The FDA first raised concerns about the such risks with the drugs in January 2008. Today's announcement also noted that the agency had required "development of a medication guide, to be issued to patients each time the product is dispensed."

There are 11 drugs in the anti-seizure class, some of them multi-billion sellers (Lamictal, Depakote, etc.) due to their twin uses in epilepsy and bipolar disorder."