Imepitoin is well tolerated in healthy and epileptic cats

BACKGROUND: Epilepsy in the cat is a serious medical condition. To date there are no licensed treatments for feline epilepsy and no well-controlled clinical studies on the efficacy or safety of antiepileptic drugs in cats. The aim of this study was to collect tolerability data and first exploratory efficacy data of imepitoin in both healthy and epileptic cats. RESULTS: In two tolerability studies, 30 healthy cats received imepition twice daily in doses of 0, 30, 40 or 80 mg/kg bodyweight for 30 days. No serious adverse events were observed in any of the dose groups. In the imepitoin treated groups, emesis was observed in some animals temporarily and intermittently mainly in the second and third weeks of treatment. In a small, single-arm, open label, uncontrolled clinical trial eight cats suffering from idiopathic epilepsy were treated with imepitoin twice daily at doses of 30 mg/kg bodyweight for 30 days. Four of these cats (50%) achieved seizure freedom for at least 8 weeks under treatment. Adverse events, mostly lethargy, decreased appetite and emesis, were often mild and transient. CONCLUSION: In summary, imepitoin was well tolerated in healthy and epileptic cats and showed in a pilot trial indication for efficacy in treating feline epilepsy.