Anxiogenic- and antidepressant-like behavior in corneally kindled rats

Background: Anxiety and depression affect epileptic patients much more often than individuals from the general population. We were interested in whether corneal kindling in rats, which is a model of complex partial seizures with secondary generalization, would influence animal behavior in models of anxiety and depression.

Methods: Kindling was achieved by transcorneal electric stimulation and fully kindled rats were used in this study. Kindled and sham-stimulated rats were subjected to the elevated plus maze and forced swim test which are believed to be predictive models for anxiety and depression in humans, respectively.

Results: Kindling significantly decreased the percentage of time spent by the rats in open arms relative to time spent in open plus closed arms and it reduced immobility time in the swim test as compared with sham-stimulated rats.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that corneal kindling produces antidepressant- and anxiety-like effects in rats and it may be a useful model to study epilepsy-associated anxiety.