Seizure activity in photosensitive baboons following antidepressant drugs and the role of serotoninergic mechanisms
✍ Scribed by Mike Trimble; Gill Anlezark; Brian Meldrum
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1977
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 621 KB
- Volume
- 51
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0033-3158
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Laboratory and clinical evidence indicates that tricyclic antidepressants lower seizure threshold and in high doses may induce generalised seizures.
In baboons with photosensitive epilepsy (Papio papio) the effects of 2 tricyclic antidepressants (imipramine and chlorimipramine) and of maprotiline and Nomifensine have been studied (i.v. dose range 1 -20 mg/kg. Imipramine, chlorimipramine and maprotiline (10 mg/ kg i.v.) lowered seizure threshold to a comparable extent, whereas Nomifensine (10 mg/kg i.v.) did not enhance myoclonic responses to photic stimulation.
Generalised seizures were seen 15-30 min after imipramine or chlorimipramine (20 mg/kg), and these two drugs showed no difference in their epileptogenicity. Administration of 5-hydroxytryptophan (25 rag/ kg i.v.) 90 min before chlorimipramine or imipramine (10 mg/kg) completely blocked the usual augmentation of photically-induced epileptic responses. It is concluded that enhancement of serotoninergic activity following blockade of 5-HT re-uptake within the brain is unlikely to be responsible for enhanced myoclonic responses and epileptogenic seizures seen after tricyclic antidepressants. Nomifensine is significantly less epileptogenic than imipramine or chlorimipramine.