Developmental Effects of Seizures: Role of Malnutrition

Abstract
Rats (88) were paired at birth according to sex and weight. One member of each pair received 2 electroconvulsive seizures a day during the neonatal period (days 2-11). Access of its control littermate to the mother was restricted so that the body weights of any 2 paired rats never diverged by more than 2 g on any day of life, ans were usually within 0.5 g of each other. This guaranteed that the nutritional status of seizure-treated and control animals was similar throughout development. On day 30 of life, seizure-treated rats had smaller brains (-56 mg, P < .05) and reduced numbers of brain cells (-13.106, P < .05) compared to their control littermates. The reduction of brain DNA brought about by neonatal seizures was not simply caused by malnutrition of seizure-treated animals.