The pilocarpine model of epilepsy.

The systemic administration of a potent muscarinic agonist pilocarpine in rats promotes sequential behavioural and electrographic changes that can be divided in three distinct periods: (a) an acute period that built up progressively into a limbic status epilepticus and that lasts 24 h, (b) a silent period with a progressive normalization of EEG and behaviour which varies from 4 to 44 days, and (c) a chronic period with spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRSs). The main features of the SRSs observed during the long-term period resemble those of human complex partial seizures and recurs 2-3 times per week per animal. Therefore, this novel and unique experimental approach may serve as a model of epilepsy mimicking the human condition.