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Single dose varenicline may trigger epileptic activity

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Abstract

Varenicline is a new drug for smoking cessation, and its effect on epilepsy is not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate whether different doses of varenicline cause epileptic activity. Forty rats were randomly assigned to the following eight groups: control, saline, and 0.025, 0.04, 0.1, 0.5, 1, and 2 mg kg−1 varenicline (single dose, i.p.). EEGs were recorded before the varenicline injection and during the following 240 min. While epileptic discharges were observed on the EEGs of the rats in all of the varenicline-treated groups, motor findings of epileptic seizure were not observed in some rats in these groups except the 1 and 2 mg kg−1 groups. These findings indicate that different single doses of varenicline cause epileptic activity in rats.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank to Aydın Akçılar for his technical support. This study was supported by Balikesir University Research Fund (Project number: 2012–121).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Balikesir University, Balikesir, Turkey

    Haydar Ali Erken & Gülten Erken

  2. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dumlupinar University, Kutahya, Turkey

    Hasan Şimşek & Osman Genç

  3. Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Balikesir University, Balikesir, Turkey

    Oğuzhan Korkut

  4. Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Balikesir University, Balikesir, Turkey

    Emine Rabia Koç

  5. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Balikesir University, Balikesir, Turkey

    Özlem Yavuz

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  1. Haydar Ali Erken
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Correspondence to Haydar Ali Erken.

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Erken, H.A., Erken, G., Şimşek, H. et al. Single dose varenicline may trigger epileptic activity. Neurol Sci 35, 1807–1812 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-014-1845-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-014-1845-y

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