Antiepileptic drugs — Their effects on kindled seizures and kindling-induced learning impairments

Many epileptic patients suffer from cognitive impairments. These impairments may be a consequence of the epileptogenic process and/or antiepileptic medication. Kindling is considered a useful experimental model to investigate drug effects on both the convulsive component of epilepsy and related alte...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pharmacology, biochemistry and behavior biochemistry and behavior, 1995-11, Vol.52 (3), p.453-459
Main Authors: Becker, Axel, Grecksch, Gisela, Brosz, Mathias
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Anticonvulsants - therapeutic use
Anticonvulsants. Antiepileptics. Antiparkinson agents
Avoidance Learning - drug effects
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition - drug effects
Dipropylacetate
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Ethosuximide
Ethosuximide - pharmacology
Kindling
Kindling, Neurologic - drug effects
Kindling, Neurologic - physiology
Learning
Learning Disorders - drug therapy
Learning Disorders - etiology
Learning Disorders - psychology
Male
Medical sciences
Neuropharmacology
Pentylenetetrazol
Pentylenetetrazole
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Phenobarbital
Phenobarbital - pharmacology
Rats
Rats, Wistar
Seizures - chemically induced
Seizures - drug therapy
Seizures - psychology
Valproic Acid - pharmacology
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Summary:Many epileptic patients suffer from cognitive impairments. These impairments may be a consequence of the epileptogenic process and/or antiepileptic medication. Kindling is considered a useful experimental model to investigate drug effects on both the convulsive component of epilepsy and related alterations at the behavioral level. In our experiments, kindling was induced by repeated injections of pentylenetetrazol (PTZ). To test the effect of antiepileptic drugs on kindled seizures and kindling-induced learning deficits we injected ethosuximide, dipropylacetate, and phenobarbital prior to each kindling stimulation or after kindling completion, and tested these animals in a shuttle-box paradigm. Dipropylacetate and phenobarbital suppressed the development of motor seizures and counteracted the learning deficit. Although ethosuximide had a clear effect on kindled seizures, the learning deficit occurred in kindled rats. This suggests that AEDs effects on kindled seizures are not correlated with the elemination of deficits in the field of cognition.
ISSN:0091-3057
1873-5177
DOI:10.1016/0091-3057(95)00137-L