Sleep in epileptic beagles and antiepileptics.

The sleep-wakefulness (S-W) patterns in 4 genetically epileptic beagles were studied. As compared to normal beagles, there was no change in the percentage time spent in the different stages of S-W. However, epileptic dogs tended towards more and shorter S-W epochs and they had a statistically significant shortening of both REM and deep slow wave sleep (dSWS) latency. The antiepileptics diazepam, phenytoin, flunarizine and phenobarbital did not yield marked effects on S-W patterns, but the REM and dSWS latencies were affected. It is suggested that epileptic beagles may be useful in experimental analysis of epilepsy as well as in drug development.