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<p>The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for
developing national clinical guidelines to secure consistent, high quality, evidence
based care for patients using the National Health Service. The NICE guideline on epilepsy,
<em>The epilepsies: the diagnosis and management of the epilepsies in adults and children
in primary and secondary care</em>, makes clear that to enable informed decisions
and choice, women and girls with epilepsy must be given accurate information and counselling
about contraception, conception and pregnancy.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Department
worked with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, healthcare professionals
and patient groups to raise awareness and encourage discussion about the risks and
benefits of sodium valproate between healthcare professionals and their patients.
Several measures were put in place to minimize the prescribing of sodium valproate
to women of childbearing potential (except where other drugs are ineffective or not
tolerated) and to communicate the warnings around the drug sodium valproate to healthcare
professionals and patients (particularly women of child bearing potential). These
include:</p><p> </p><p>- working with the Health and Social Care Information Service
on introducing red-flag warnings on general practitioners and community pharmacy IT
systems;</p><p> </p><p>- updating the British National Formulary (BNF) and BNF for
children (BNFc);</p><p> </p><p>- using existing Departmental and NHS communication
channels to raise awareness and provide information to patients; and</p><p> </p><p>-
working with the relevant Royal Colleges and professional bodies to communicate with
their members and raise awareness.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
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