Valnoctamide (INN, USAN) has been used in France as a sedative-hypnotic since 1964.

[3] In addition to being a sedative, valnoctamide has been investigated for use in epilepsy.

[7] RH Belmaker, Yuly Bersudsky and Alex Mishory started a clinical trial of valnoctamide for prophylaxis of mania in lieu of the much more teratogenic valproic acid or its salts.

[8] The side effects of valnoctamide are mostly minor and include somnolence and the slight motor impairments mentioned above.

[9] Valnoctamide is a racemic compound with four stereoisomers,[10] all of which were shown to be more effective than valproic acid in animal models of epilepsy and one of which [(2S,3S]-valnoctamide) was considered to be a good candidate by Isoherranen, et al. for an anticonvulsant in August 2003.