Antidepressants alter cerebrovascular permeability and metabolic rate in primates.

External detection of the annihilation radiation produced by water labeled with oxygen-15 was used to measure cerebrovascular permeability and cerebral blood flow in six rhesus monkeys. Use of oxygen-15 also permitted assessment of cerebral metabolic rate in two of the monkeys. Amitriptyline produced a dose-dependent, reversible increase in permeability at plasma drug concentrations which are therapeutic for depressed patients. At the same concentrations the drug also produced a 20 to 30 percent reduction in cerebral metabolic rate. At higher doses normal autoregulation of cerebral blood flow was suspended, but responsivity to arterial carbon dioxide was normal.