The MHRA guidance states Valproate must not be used in women of childbearing age unless a 'Pregnancy Prevention Program' is in place.  The Ardens Valproate searches will help you to identify those patients who may need to be reviewed, to ensure they are fully informed of the risks and of the need to avoid exposure to Valproate medicines in pregnancy.


To locate these searches, navigate to the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches > 2.22 Prescribing - Alerts > Neurology search folder.



The parent search On valproate will display all patients with a current medication course of Sodium Valproate, further broken down by 4 sub-searches - of those patients on valproate:


  • On valproate I ?Stop as childbearing potential + PPP declined/discontinued L1y search identifies those aged between 8yr and 55yr who have a pregnancy prevention programme declined/discontinued coded in the last year. 
  • On valproate I Abnormal blood results search identifies those whose latest haemoglobin is less than 120, or platelet count is less than 150, or ALT is more than 120. The associated report clearly shows the date and result of the blood test.
  • On valproate I Review as childbearing potential + no ARAF in last y search identifies those aged between 8yr and 55yr with childbearing potential who have not had an annual risk acknowledgement form completed in the last year.
  • On valproate I Review as childbearing potential + no PPP in last 1y search identifies those aged between 8yr and 55yr with childbearing potential who have not had a pregnancy prevention programme type code recorded in the last year.


To view the results of the searches, right click on the Valproate pregnancy search folder and select Run. Patients that meet the criteria of the search, will display in the Population Included tab.


Please note -the following Ardens alerts will remind you of the MHRA guidance when prescribing Valproate.





These are triggered when issuing Valproate medicines and gives the option to run our Valproate clinical template.




The Valproate template can also be run independently and can be found either by searching 'valproate' from your Template Picker screen, or navigating to the  Pharmacy - medication specific folder.



If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact Ardens support on: support-emis@ardens.org.uk