Valproic acid: first experience of use in psychomotor agitation in patients with psychotic disorders

This work demonstrates the potential of using valproic acid in psychiatric patients to relieve psychomotor agitation that develops outside nosological boundaries. Considering psychomotor agitation as a transnosological condition caused by weakness of inhibitory processes in the brain, valproic acid, by potentiating the non-selective action of the inhibitory neurotransmitter, does not produce dissociative effects on brain function. Based on 18 clinical cases (patients with various psychiatric diagnoses) in which intravenous administration of valproic acid led to relief of psychomotor agitation symptoms, it was shown that the drug can be used as a nonspecific/universal agent for managing psychomotor

agitation without causing pathomorphosis of the clinical picture of the disease.

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