Carbamazepine effects on afterdischarge, memory retrieval, and conditioned avoidance response latency in hippocampally kindled cats.

Carbamazepine (CBZ) effects on (a) complex partial seizures and afterdischarges (AD), (b) memory retrieval, and (c) conditioned avoidance response (CAR) latencies were studied in a group of 9 hippocampally kindled cats. Significant AD and epileptic seizure suppression was observed in kindled cats after administration of CBZ concurrent with significant improvement in percentage scores on the memory retrieval test. The CAR latencies were longer in kindled cats with or without CBZ than in the conditioned group of cats without both kindling and CBZ. CAR latencies were not significantly different between kindled and kindled-CBZ-treated cats. Thus, the longer latencies in kindled animals cannot be due to CBZ but apparently are related to the effects of kindling. In some kindled animals, longer CAR latencies were reversed by CBZ.