Tramadol and seizures

To the Editor: Labate and colleagues note that tramadol is the most frequently suspected cause of provoked seizures at their First Seizure Clinic.1

Early in 2003, the Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee (ADRAC) reported to Australian prescribers the results of the first 4 years of experience with tramadol in Australia.2 At the time, ADRAC noted that 26 cases of convulsions had been reported among a total of 354 reports on tramadol.

By January 2005, ADRAC had received a total of 921 reports involving tramadol, of which 66 described convulsions. (Labate et al reported that 83 cases of convulsions associated with tramadol had been reported to ADRAC. This is incorrect, but the mistake probably resulted from an error in interpretation of information supplied by the Adverse Drug Reactions Unit.) In 27 cases, tramadol was the only suspected drug, but in the other 39 cases there were various other suspected drugs. This included 20 reports in which there was a suspected drug interaction. Both oral and injected tramadol have been implicated.

The product information for tramadol states that convulsions have been reported in patients using tramadol at the recommended dose levels and that the risk may be greater when doses of tramadol exceed the recommended limits.3 In addition, tramadol may increase the seizure risk in patients taking other medications that lower the seizure threshold. Drugs specifically mentioned in this context include the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs. In the 39 cases reported to ADRAC in which there were one or more suspected drugs in addition to tramadol, tramadol was being used with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (10 cases), tricyclic antidepressants (6 cases) and, in 13 cases, other drugs that may also have the potential to lower the seizure threshold, such as pethidine (2 cases), venlafaxine (2), propofol (2) and bupropion (2). In two of the cases in which tramadol was the only suspected cause and two of the cases with multiple suspected causes, the patients were also taking anticonvulsant drugs for seizure control.

ADRAC data indicate that, although tramadol alone can induce seizures, these are more likely to occur in the setting of the concomitant use of other drugs that also have the potential to lower the seizure threshold.