ELECTRICAL AMYGDALA KINDLING IN ALCOHOL-WITHDRAWAL KINDLED RATS

Repeated alcohol withdrawal has been shown to kindle seizure activity. The purpose of the present investigation was to study electrical amyg dala kindling in rats previously exposed to alcohol-withdrawal kindlin g. Ln three independent experiments, male Wistar rats were subjected t o multiple episodes each consisting of 2 days of severe alcohol intoxi cation and 5 days of alcohol withdrawal. In the first experiment, the alcohol-withdrawal kindled animals were divided inter two groups depen ding on whether spontaneous alcohol-withdrawal seizures were observed in episodes 10-13. In the second and third experiments, the alcohol-wi thdrawal kindled animals were compared to a group in which alcohol-wit hdrawal kindling was prevented by diazepam treatment during the withdr awal reactions in order to discriminate between the effect of withdraw al and intoxication. Electrical kindling was initiated 28-35 days afte r the last alcohol dose by exposing the animals to daily electrical st imulations of the right amygdala. The results showed that amygdala kin dling was facilitated in alcohol-withdrawal kindled animals which show ed spontaneous withdrawal seizure activity, compared with animals expo sed to multiple episodes of alcohol withdrawal which did not develop w ithdrawal seizures or with animals exposed to a single episode of alco hol intoxication. When compared to the control group, the alcohol-with drawal kindled group with seizures also kindled at a faster rate, but the difference did not reach statistical significance and therefore th e results must be regarded as preliminary at present.