Convulsant Action of Phenothiazine Derivatives

Spontaneous EEG Paroxysms in the Rat: Effects of Psychotropic and Alpha-Adrenergic Agents

“…Similar results with PTZ in humans led Fazekas et al [10] to the same conclusion. A further argument for two different CNS mechanisms is the observation that, although EEG pa roxysms are markedly prolonged by some drugs, no sei zures occurred.…”

“…There is, however, no doubt that in patients with a history of seizures or in patients known to have organic brain damage (for example leukotomy), neuroleptics, especially at high doses, increase the fre quency of seizures [1,3,4,10,25,27,28]. In analogy to our rat model, patients with 'petit mal epilepsy' experi ence a prolongation of their 'petit mal status' after treat ment with chlorpromazine [25], However, the following important questions still await an answer: -Is the spike and wave activity in the pharmaco-EEG of patients with psychopharmacological treatment part of the therapeutic effect of the drug?…”

Failure of chlorpromazine to prevent barbiturate‐withdrawal convulsions

“…5 , 6, 9, 10 Chlorpromazine (2-chlor-l0-[3' -dimethyl-amino N-propyl] phenothiazine) has been reported to be an effective treatment of the acute phase of the barbiturate-withdrawal syndrome in one study in man 1 ; in another study, it was ineffective. 4 It is important to know whether or not chlorpromazine can effectively suppress the abstinence convulsions of barbiturate withdrawal. Since the dog develops a dependence and an abstinence syndrome similar to that of man,3, 7, 12 the dog rather than man was used in this study to test the efficacy of various dose levels of chlorpromazine in treating the barbital-withdrawal syndrome.…”