A manual search of pertinent article bibliographies was also performed. Appropriate information from all reports was included. Specific attention was directed toward patient age, with focus on a psychiatric diagnosis of agitation, behavior disturbances, or both.
Psychiatric disorders present in a number of different forms in the elderly.
They have traditionally been treated with a multitude of medications. Valproate is being used alone and in combination with other agents to treat a variety of disturbances ranging from agitation and aggression to behavior disturbances associated with dementias. More controlled studies are needed to validate this indication. Valproate should be considered as a viable alternative treatment. However, the compound was not thought to be clinically useful until Meunier and his colleagues characterized the anticonvulsant properties nearly a century later in France.