Publication, Part of Medicines and Pregnancy Registry
[MI] Medicines and Pregnancy Registry - Antiepileptic use in females aged 0 to 54 in England: April 2018 to September 2025
Summary
NHS England is working in partnership with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to develop comprehensive national Medicines and Pregnancy Registries which can give a better understanding of the use, benefits, and risks of medicines taken in pregnancy.
The objectives are to:
• use data to generate evidence on the use, benefits, and risks of medicines prescribed during pregnancy
• enable the health and care system including medicines regulators to make informed decisions to ensure the safe prescribing of medicines in pregnancy
• support continued follow up of females prescribed medicines in pregnancy and their children
• minimise the burden imposed on health and care providers and their commissioners by a registry whilst maximising coverage through central data linkage and analysis
This report is an analysis of linking existing administrative patient data using Prescribing data, Maternity Services Dataset and Hospital Episodes Statistics (see Data Sources page for further information). This has been developed as a proof of concept, to establish the use and value of these data sets in supporting robust and sustainable medicine registries. The data produced are designed to support the MHRA in monitoring the level of success of the valproate pregnancy prevention plan (PPP) and to enable the wider health and care system to further understand outcomes for females prescribed valproate during pregnancy and their children and consequently to improve patient care.
Users are advised to always use the latest publication for the correct figures. Results from this publication should not be directly compared to previous releases.
Further updated reports, as the registry develops, will be available on a regular basis subject to ongoing discussions and appropriate arrangements being in place.
Highlights
Warning
It is important women do not stop taking their antiepileptic medicine without first discussing it with their doctor. Women receiving treatment who anticipate they may become pregnant at any point in the future are advised to discuss their treatment with a healthcare professional.
Methodology
The analysis in this report uses an updated version of the Prescribing data, with changes to some of the tracing methodology used to identify and link relevant prescription records for females aged 0-54 in this publication.
The effects of this change have been assessed by comparing data for April 2018 to March 2025 using each version. Following the change, very small numbers of females have been added to the registry or recorded as taking additional antiepileptic medicines based on historic prescribing, and a smaller number of females have been removed from the registry. The more robust methodology results in a maximum net increase of 0.6% in any of the medicine cohorts identified for this publication.
As the pregnancies in this report are based on the list of females in the registry, this also has very small knock-on effects on the counts of pregnancies and the reported timing of prescribing in relation to pregnancy.
For valproate, no additional pregnancies with prescribing during pregnancy were identified.
Users are advised to always use the latest publication for the correct figures. Results from this publication should not be directly compared to previous releases.
Feedback
We welcome any user feedback about this publication, you can provide this by email to [email protected]
Key Facts
55,757 females (aged 0 - 54) were prescribed valproate on one or more occasions between April 2018 and September 2025
Of which, 13,910 females were prescribed valproate in September 2025. A reduction of 13,540 from 27,450 in April 2018 to 13,910 in September 2025.
Valproate prescribing and pregnancy
for conceptions identified since April 2018
Resources
Last edited: 12 May 2026 7:01 pm