Abstract
Antihistaminic drugs produce side effects by acting on the central nervous system, the most consistent of them being sedation. Since many sedative drugs possess anticonvulsant property also, antihista-ninics have been occasionally tried in the treatment of epilepsy and related disorders (1-3). At the same time there are also reports of increased frequency of seizures in epileptic patients (4) and of convulsions in normal individuals (5) with certain antihistaminic drugs.
Swinyard et al. (6) reported diphenhydramine and tripelennamine to be active in supramaximal electroshock test but much inferior to diphenylhydantoin. Stone et al. (7) reported the ability of cyproheptadine to antagonize electrical and nicotine induced convulsions in mice. In view of the availability of very limited information regarding the anticonvulsant activity of these drugs it was considered important to investigate this effect in detail. The results of such a study, it was anticipated, would not only provide information on their anticonvulsant property but would also help in selecting drugs for the treatment of allergic manifestations in epileptic patients. A preliminary report of part of this work has been published (8).
