News &
New Information
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Addition of lamotrigine (Lamictal) to the PBS for bipolar disorder
After 8 years of requesting and presenting the ever-increasing amount of evidence of the need for lamotrigine to be subsidised for bipolar disorder, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee has made a recommendation to the Minister to subsidise lamotrigine on the PBS
Documents:
November 2025 meeting outcome - recommendation reasons (pages 23-24)
TGA Facebook Safety Alerts - 7/3/2024
Alerts have been added to the TGA Facebook page.
The information presented as recent despite being over 12 months old.
As at 12 March 2025, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has not added any website content regarding the risks of valproate.
Section content linked 13/3/2025
CONSUMER ALERT
PRESCRIBER ALERT
The Guardian Australia published an article on the issue of valproate specific to Australia.
Linked 30/11/2024
The Guardian Australia 24 November 2024
Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
November 2024
A directive was issued in October/November 2024 that the UK 2018 guidelines must now be followed due to there being deficiencies in following appropriate prescribing practices.
NEW CLINICAL GUIDELINE
The RANZCP has introduced the 2018 UK guideline on prescribing valproate.
Linked 2/12/2024
RANZCP November 2024 Announcement of adoption of UK 2018 position statement for prescribing valproate
Linked 2/12/2024
Royal College of Psychiatrists 2018 position statement on prescribing valproate or people of childbearing potential.
Linked 2/12/2024
The August 2023 article the RANZCP use as evidence for necessity of new policy (2018/2019 NZ data)
Linked 2/12/2024
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