Seizure Elicitation Blocked by Pretreatment with Lidocaine.
A patient is reported in whom pretreatment with intravenous lidocaine resulted in failure to elicit a seizure even at stimulus intensity markedly greater than that used successfully at prior and subsequent treatments. Together with one other report, this experience suggests that lidocaine may prevent a seizure by raising the seizure threshold. An alternative explanation is proposed for the classic findings of Ottosson that lidocaine-modified seizures are reduced in therapeutic efficacy.
Devanand
D. P.
DP
Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, and Department of Biological Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, USA.
Sackeim
Harold A.
HA