Baton Rouge, LAWhen patients were given their Depakote prescriptions they probably thought they were getting all the pertinent information about the anticonvulsant medication. But that may not be the case, says J. Benton Stewart II, an attorney at Stewart Law P.L.L.C. Compounding the problem is the fact that there is no fixed time frame for Depakote side effects to appear—and some patients may have taken Depakote without ever realizing it.
Depakote was approved as an anticonvulsant medication but was later found to have an effect on brain chemistry, so doctors began prescribing it for off-label uses such as for migraines, bipolar disorder and mania. Patients may have been prescribed Depakote for any of those uses without realizing they took that particular drug.
"Is the injury an acceptable medical risk to the patient? Depakote patients are not being allowed to make an informed decision, and that's a problem"
Furthermore, there is no fixed window in which patients could suffer adverse effects from Depakote.
"If you were to start today, you could take two pills and have a reaction to Depakote," Stewart says. "You could take it now and three or four years from now have pancreatitis or liver failure that is linked back to the Depakote use."
Although that lag time makes lawsuits more difficult, there are lawsuits being filed alleging Depakote caused patients to suffer liver failure and pancreatitis. It has been shown that Depakote caused birth defects among infants who were exposed to the medication prior to birth.
"Most of the press is about birth defects such as neural tube defects and spina bifida," Stewart says. "But we're also seeing deformation of the spinal cord and nerve problems in infants. If there's an issue, it's because the mother was given Depakote during pregnancy. We've just found out during discovery [a phase of a lawsuit] that women who had migraines and were depressed during pregnancy were given Depakote. But what is the cost of putting them on Depakote versus the cost of a migraine? Ultimately that cost was their babies' heath after they were prescribed this dangerous drug."
Children who were exposed to Depakote prior to birth may develop seizure activity or liver failure. Other health problems include a risk of pancreatitis, which Stewart says has been seen in both adults and children exposed to Depakote. Symptoms of pancreatitis include unexplained nausea, vomiting, back pain and difficulty putting on weight.
According to Stewart, one of the issues is whether or not patients were able to make an informed decision about using Depakote.
"Is the injury an acceptable medical risk to the patient?" Stewart says. "Depakote patients are not being allowed to make an informed decision, and that's a problem. If you're fully informed about the side effects and the doctor says, 'You have severe epileptic fits and I still think you should use it because it can save your life,' that's one thing. But you have to have all the information to make a decision. Was there an equally effective treatment that could have controlled the injury and would not have exposed the patient to the potential side effects?"
The statute of limitations on Depakote varies based on the state and is based on when the patient was allegedly injured by the medication. For some patients, that means a lawsuit is not filed until years after he or she was prescribed the Depakote.
"If people have any of the symptoms of an adverse reaction to Depakote, they should go back and determine if they were ever prescribed Depakote and immediately contact an attorney to ensure the statute of limitations doesn't run out," Stewart says.
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