Effects of chronic treatment with commonly used antiepileptic drugs on passive avoidance learning in prepubertal rats

Abstract

Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), which are widely used to control and prevent epileptic seizures in children with epilepsy, have potential cognitive side effects. There have been several reports respecting different effects of the first and second generation ADEs on learning and memory. Therefore, we investigated the effects of valproate, carbamazepine, levetiracetam, oxcarbazepine, lamotrigine and topiramate, administered chronically by gavage for 21 days, on learning and memory retention of male and female prepubertal rats. Sixty male and forty-nine female prepubertal Sprague Dawley rats, 21 days old, were used in this study. Cognitive function was tested at 42 days by a step-through passive avoidance task. The results indicated that in both male and female young rats ADEs did not alter passive avoidance latency when compared with the control groups. There is no difference between the effects of the first (valproate and carbamazepine) and second generation ADEs (levetiracetam, oxcarbazepine, lamotrigine and topiramate) regarding learning and memory retention. However, valproate and levetiracetam displayed sexual dimorphism in passive avoidance tast performances. These data suggest that chronic use of both first and second generation ADEs to treat young rats practically could not cause any serious negative effects on cognitive performance. 

Keywords

• Cognitive performance
• Epilepsy
• Memory
• Step-through test

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