Abstract: Objective To investigate the effects and adverse reactions of sodium valproate (VPA) on cognitive function in school-age children with epilepsy. Methods A total of 60 school-age children with epilepsy and treated with a single dose of VPA were included in this study. The 5 mg/(kg·d) were added to the initial dose of 10 mg/ (kg·d), and gradually increased to maintain therapeutic doses of 20-30 mg/ (kg·d). Patients were given for drug dosage treatment at the first 4 weeks, and drug reduction therapy for 12 weeks. The treatment information was recorded weekly. Wechsler Intelligence Scale was used to analyze the therapeutic effects, adverse reactions and cognitive function before and after treatment. Results The total effective rate was 86.7% (52/60). The block and decoding scores were significantly lower after treatment than those before the treatment. There were no significant differences in verbal IQ (VIQ), and the full-scale IQ (FIQ) before and after treatment. The performance IQ (PIQ) was significantly lower after treatment than that before treatment (P＜0.05). There was a positive correlation between the age of onset, FIQ, VIQ and PIQ in school-age children with epilepsy (P＜ 0.001). The duration of epilepsy and the frequency of epileptic seizures were negatively correlated with FIQ, VIQ and PIQ before and after treatment in school-age children with epilepsy (P＜0.001). The incidence of adverse reactions was 8.33% (5/ 60) during the period of drug dosage treatment (the first 4 weeks). The incidence of adverse reactions was 11.67% (7/60) during maintenance treatment (after 12 weeks). Conclusion The earlier seizure onset, the longer epilepsy duration and the higher frequency of seizures are correlated with the damage degree of cognitive function. VPA has a significant effect on the treatment of generalized tonic clonic seizure in school-age children, which is an ideal drug for clinical treatment of children with epilepsy.

Key words: epilepsy；valproate, children, curative effect, cognitive function