Recent studies have demonstrated that the water diuresis associated with intravenous infusion of norepinephrine is mediated primarly by suppression of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) release. To investigate whether the increase in cerebral perfusion pressure with intravenous norepinephrine (0.5 mug/kg/min) is directly responsible for suppression of ADH release, the carotid circulation of dogs was pump-perfused bilaterally to selectively increase cerebral perfusion pressure. In six experiments cerebral perfusion pressure was increased from a mean of 125 to 151 mm Hg and then returned to 120 mm Hg. This maneuver was not associated with a reversible increase in renal water excretion. The possibility was also examined that norepinephrine exerts a direct central effect to suppress ADH release. In 12 experiments norepinephrine was infused into the carotid artery in a subpressor dose (0.12 mug/kg/min) estimated to equal the amount of the catecholamine reaching the cerebral circulation with intravenous norepinephrine. The urinary osmolality (Uosm) was not significantly altered with intracarotid norepinephrine (932 to 959 mosmol/kg H(2)O. The possibility was also examined that changes in autonomic neural tone from arterial baroreceptors is responsible for suppression of ADH release with intravenous norepinephrine. In sham-operated animals intravenous norepinephrine diminished Uosm from 1,034 to 205 mosmol/kg H(2)O (P<0.001) whereas in animals with denervated arterial baroreceptors intravenous norepinephrine was not associated with a significant alteration in Uosm (1,233 to 1,232 mosmol/kg) H(2)O. These different effects on urinary osmolality occurred in the absence of differences in plasma osmolality and volume status. The results therefore indicate that norepinephrine primarily suppresses ADH release by altering autonomic baroreceptor tone rather than by a direct central or pressor effect of the catecholamine. This same mechanism may be the primary pathway for other nonosmotic influences on ADH release.