THE EFFECTS OF RESERPINE AND SOME RELATED COMPOUNDS UPON THE LEVELS OF ADEN1NE NUCLEOTIDES, CREATINE PHOSPHATE AND INORGANIC PHOSPHATE IN THE RAT BRAIN IN VIVO’

Reserpine depletes the brain of serotonin (Brodie et al., 1955), norepinephrine (Holzbauer and Vogt, 1956), and gamma-aminobutyric acid (Balzer et al., 1961). The peripheral actions of reserpine can be attributed to depletion of peripheral stores of norepinephrine (Burn and Rand, 1958) and the central actions to the release of norepinephrine, serotonin or both of these compounds. Its sedative effects have been attributed by Brodie et at. (1955) to changes in brain serotonin levels and this view is supported by the observations of Brodie et al. (1960) that sedation caused by dimethylaminobenzoyl methylreserpate (Su 5171) is correlated to changes of brain serotonin rather than norepi-nephrine levels. Reserpine-sedation has also been attributed to depletion of brain norepi