Evaluation of epileptic dogs as an animal model of human epilepsy

In 126 epileptic dogs with spontaneously recurring generalized tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizures, epidemiological aspects and the efficacy of chronic oral treatment with common antiepileptic drugs were studied. Furthermore, the pharmacokinetics of antiepileptic drugs in dogs was compared with the values known for man. As in man, idiopathic epilepsy appeared to be more common than symptomatic epilepsy in dogs. There was a preponderance of male vs. female animals. When the breeds of the epileptic dogs were compared to the distribution of breeds in the hospital population, breed-related differences in the prevalence of epilepsy were found. The highest prevalence was seen in Cocker spaniels, Miniature schnauzers, Collies and Bassets. The total prevalence of dogs with epilepsy was 0.55%. Comparison of pharmacokinetics of antiepileptic drugs showed that some drugs were suited for maintenance therapy in dogs (primidone, phenobarbital, ethosuximide, trimethadione) whereas others appeared not to be ideally suited because of their short half-lives (phenytoin, carbamazepine, valproic acid, diazepam, clonazepam, nitrazepam). This was confirmed by the evaluation of antiepileptic drug efficacy in epileptic dogs. 46 dogs were treated with primidone at daily doses of 14-104 mg/kg for 6-60 months. During medication with primidone, effective plasma levels of its metabolite phenobarbital could be maintained. Complete control of seizures or a reduction of seizure frequency by at least 75% was achieved in 39% of the dogs at phenobarbital concentrations of 5-49 micrograms/ml. Similar figures were obtained during chronic treatment with phenobarbital at daily doses of 2.5-13 mg/kg.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)